


Voyager Lost

by Fmfan1980



Category: Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate Atlantis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2018-11-18 22:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11300166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fmfan1980/pseuds/Fmfan1980
Summary: Based on an idea that popped into my head. Voyager was traveling at Warp, after leaving behind the 37's, when the ship encountered a subspace anomaly that brought it to the Pegasus Galaxy in another reality.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, locations or plots from Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis,and StarTrek Voyager. This is just a work of fiction. I own nothing. Each of the shows, characters (except for any OC's) and plots belong to their respective networks. All I'm doing is playing in the universe that the creators have created. All reviews are welcome.

**Captain's Ready Room, USS Voyager, Delta Quadrant.**

"Captain's Log, Supplemental," said Captain Kathryn Janeway of the stranded Federation Starship, Voyager, as she sat behind her desk in her ready room looking at her reflection on the computer screen. It had been nearly a year since Voyager was forcefully pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the alien known as the Caretaker. Having destroyed the Caretaker's array to prevent it from falling into the hands of a hostile race called the Kazon, Voyager spent every spare moment since that fateful day heading home under the command of Captain Janeway and a crew of Federation officers and Maquis.

Ironically, it was the mission to Capture the Maquis, led by a former Starfleet officer named Chakotay, that brought Voyager into this mess. And it was that very same man who she named her second-in-command. However, it was the initial moment of breaking the Prime Directive; helping a race known as the Ocampa, which Janeway secretly felt was her greatest regret. And it was something that she didn't want anyone to know.

With two additions to the crew in Neelix, a Talaxian, and Kes, an Ocampan, Voyager was travelling at Warp Six on course for the Alpha quadrant. While the senior staff, including Commander Chakotay, were on the bridge. Neelix was in the Mess Hall getting ready for lunch, and Kes was in the hydroponics bay brushing her fingers against the leaves of one of the many leafy vegetable she was growing.

In the meantime, the Captain was in her Ready Room preparing to create another log.

There was a cup of coffee on the table in front of her; a cup that she picked up and then took a sip. She leaned back on the chair as the computer beeped again to remind her that her log was still active and waiting on her to record what she wanted to say. The Captain sighed before continuing, "it has been one year and two months since Voyager was brought to the Delta Quadrant. We just dropped off Amelia Earhart and her people who…"

Before the Captain could continue her log, there was a jolt that shook the entire ship when, suddenly, alarms started to blare. The lights dimmed and red accents lit on her Ready Room. The ship then jolted violently once again just as she was getting off her chair, causing her to stumble and fall onto the floor. Janeway's body rolled involuntarily into a wall when the ship suddenly lurched to port, and then violently to Starboard. She rolled on the floor trying to grasp something to hold on to. She grabbed the side of her desk and panted as the ship steadied herself while a metallic screeching sound could be heard from the hull. Groaning in pain as she got up, Janeway quickly looked away as one of the overhead panels exploded and showered her in sparks.

"Captain to the Bridge!" Janeway heard her First Officer, Chakotay, yelling for her on the bridge through her Comm-badge. The red haired woman said that she was on the way as she got up to her still unsteady feet before she was thrown against the left wall again. Then there were sounds of more consoles exploding from the other side of her door before she regained her balance after getting up again. She then dashed forwards towards her Ready Room door. But as she did, Janeway caught a glimpse of an encroaching purple haze outside her view port while she pressed button on the left panel near the door.. Eyes wide at what was going on, Janeway ran past the sliding doors which closed after she ran past just as there was another jolt that threw her onto the floor near her seat on the bridge.

The situation was the exact same all over the bridge as crew members were being thrown every which way by violent jolts that seemed as if the ship was about to tear itself apart. There were several serious injuries, including Neelix who had hot oil splash onto his arm. The Talaxian was being rushed to Sick Bay by members of the crew who were trying to keep themselves steady. As for Kes, she had stumble into a shelf of plants which then fell on her. While the ship was jolting violently, the young woman, who was on the floor covered in soil, water, and plants was trying to get onto her feet to get away from the shelves that were about to collapse on her. At the last moment, she jumped to the side as the shelves crashed onto the ground as she crawled to a recessed corner of the cargo bay and watched as an entire year of work was destroyed.

"What's going on?" she whispered as there was another jolt, followed by a groan that seemed to vibrate trough the deck plating. Kes's heart raced while she wondered if this was an attack.

Back on the bridge, a sprawled Janeway trying to get up to her feet yelled "Report!" as Chakotay, who was thrown onto the floor from his chair, quickly got up and rushed to the struggling Captain. In the meantime, the Chief of Security, Tuvok; the Operations Officer, Harry Kim, and the others on the bridge were doing everything they could to keep the ship steady and in one piece.

"We were at Warp Six when we hit some kind of a subspace anomaly," yelled Chakotay over the sounds of groans from the hull while everyone else was reporting on the state of the crew and the ship. Janeway was helped to her chair while Tuvok said that twenty five crewmembers, including Neelix, were being taken to the sick-bay where the doctor was treating them. The chief engineer, B'Ellana Torres, then reported from the Engineering Room that the Warp field had collapsed after entering the anomaly.

"Full reverse!" barked Janeway as she sat down on her Captain's chair. She directed the order at the helmsman, Tom Paris, who was frantically doing everything he could to reverse the ship while telling B'Ellana in Engineering that he needed more power.

"That's what I've been doing, Captain," said Paris over his shoulder at the Captain before turning back to his console and reiterating once again to B'Ellana that he needed more power.

"I can't give you more!" yelled B'Ellana in the engine room as smoke started to rise from the base of the Warp Core, "the Core could breach if… hold on…"

"B'Ellana!" yelled Seska from another control panel as even more smoke started to rise. The Chief Engineer look away from her console to her fellow Maquis who was pointing at the smoke. B'Ellana then began yelling orders to contain the breach before demanding a timeline of when the Core could breach. In the meantime, Paris was struggling to hold the ship together despite the engines running at full reverse. He looked at his console and saw that the ship continued, albeit much more slowly, to inch into the subspace anomaly they encountered while at Warp.

"I can't hold on," said Paris while Kim was yelling, over louder groans coming from the hull of the ship, and the alarms that were blaring on the bridge, that the ship was continuing on its forward momentum.

"Someone cut the damn alarms!" yelled Janeway as her body shook. With everything seemingly going haywire, the silencing of the alarms was a godsend. However, the red lights in the bridge continued to shine on and off continuously.

"We're caught in some kind of a subspace anomaly pulling us in," yelled Kim as he tried to remain steady on his feet as the entire ship shook while knocking sounds started to be given off from the hull, "sensors are detecting… detecting something. It's a form of subspace radiation we haven't encountered before."

"On screen," said Janeway. The view screen then activated to show a purple haze, the same purple haze she had seen outside her own viewport, enveloping the ship. Kim told her that the haze was the radiation from subspace they hadn't encountered before.

"Captain," said Tuvok from his station, "hull stress is exceeding maximum tolerance! We have lost most of our sensors.. EPS relays on decks four, five, and six have exploded. Repair teams are being sent to contain the damage."

Janeway was looking back at the Vulcan, with eye wide open while nodding her head. She then turned to look at Chakotay who was bleeding from his left temple and said that there was no other choice. The First Officer, guessing what the Captain meant, nodded his head. He then looked out the screen while the Captain ordered the engines forward. Paris looked back at her with confusion on his face as the ship started to shake violently, which was when the Captain barked at the helmsman to fire the impulse engines, "get us into the breach! It's either that, or we break apart in space! Do it, Tom! Half impulse!"

Paris knew that the Captain was correct as he moved back to the console in front of him and pressed down on the panel in front of him. He disengaged the reverse thrusters, and watched the screen in front of his showing that the ship had begun moving into the anomaly. He then fired the impulse engines to half-power and watched the speed indicator on the console increase as Voyager slipped through into the haze. Once inside, the crew found themselves in a tunnel of blue and white while the ship remained steady. It gave everyone a chance to take a breath as they recovered injured crew mates, and beagn containing leaks all of the ship. However, the bridge crew continued to look out the view-screen in worry.

"How's the crew?" asked Janeway as she turned towards Tuvok.

"There are forty-one injuries; eleven of which are major but not life-threatening," said Tuvok as he looked at the screen which contained a list of crew members being looked at by the Doctor in sickbay, "and Captain, that number includes Neelix."

"How about Kes?" asked the Captain with worry in her voice.

"She is in the Hydroponics lab," said Tuvok as Janeway pressed on her Comm-badge and called for the Ocampan. Meanwhile, Kes was panting in the cargo hold as her heart raced while she cautiously stood to her feet. She looked around with a stunned look on her face as the plants, soil samples, nutrient-rich water, and even insects spattered on the floor. She tried to hold back her tears as she looked at a years' worth of hard work ruined in a few seconds. Taking a deep breath while telling herself that she would be able to rebuild the hydroponics bay with help from the Doctor, the Ocampan then turned her thoughts to the wellbeing of the crew. She stepped over some of the plants while heading for the bay doors when Janeway called for her though the comm-badge.

"I'm alright, Captain," Kes answered as she neared the door, "a bit shaken, but I'm alright."

"Kes," said the Captain while Chakotay got to his feet and asked for information on their location while he wiped away the blood trickling down the side of his head with the back of his right hand. In the meantime, the Captain continued, "Neelix has been badly injured. He's in sick bay, where I also need you to help the Doctor with anything he may need."

"Understood," said Kes upon hearing that Neelix was injured. She opened the door by pressing the panel, and then rushed out while several crew members were taking the injured to sickbay. While Kes was running as fast as she could, the bridge crew was working as fast as possible to gain information on where they were. Back in engineering, B'Ellana deactivated the Warp Core after receiving permission from the Captain so that they could perform emergency repairs.

Back on the Bridge, all the sensors on the ship were working to gather information on their current location and speed. However, the data being collected made little sense. Kim was looking at his console before looking up and saying, "sensors are showing an unfamiliar form of subspace radiation, that's it,," said Kim as he looked at his console in confusion at all the readings he was getting, "but… Captain? The computer can't make heads or tails of where we are, or how fast we're going."

Janeway and Chakotay could only look at each other in silence, the both of them wondering what was happening this time. Then after a second, the ship shook once again just before it flew out of the blue and white tunnel and back into real space.

"Full stop!" commanded Janeway as the ship started to slow down, and then came to a dead stop. Janeway looked back at Kim and Tuvok and asked them if the sensors were back up. They nodded their heads 'yes' before Kim said that the computer didn't recognize any of the star formations.

"Captain," said Tuvok as he narrowed his eyes, "we are a light year away from the closest M-class planet. I am detecting only three hundred humanoid life signs."

"I got it too," said Kim as he looked at his sensors, "looks like they are in a period of pre-industrial development. But… hold on…"

"Harry?" asked Paris.

"The other sensors are coming back online and…" Kim then looked up with worry etched on his face. Looking back down and shaking his head, the young man stuttered as he repeated, "sensors... sensors are… are coming back online but.." He then looked back up and said, "according to our readings, we're not in the Delta Quadrant anymore."

"Where are we?" asked Chakotay as Janeway turned, a stunned expression on her face, and looked out the View screen and then back at Kim, "Ensign?"

"I… I don't know," said Kim, "the database has no matching star maps associated with this region of space."

"Captain," said Tuvok. Janeway turned to him while Chakotay rushed up the stairs, and then to Kim's side to double check the data being collected by all the sensors. "sensors are not detecting the subspace anomaly, nor is it detecting the unique subspace radiation."

"I've got navigational sensors back online and… this can't be right," said Paris as he looked at his screen while Janeway rushed to his side. He was staring at the coordinates on the corner of the screen in front of him showing their last known coordinates, and then he stared at the other set of numbers before looking up at the stunned expression om the Captain's face.

"Run a diagnostic," the Captain whispered as she looked back up at the view screen, and then back down at the helm upon hearing a 'beep', which indicated the diagnostics were completed. The screen still showed their last known co-ordinates, but the next set of numbers still made no sense. "that's not possible… it's still all Zero's?"

"I don't understand it," said Paris, "maybe the radiation in that tunnel did something to our sensors?"

"To only the navigational sensors?" asked the Captain with an eyebrow arched upwards.

"Maybe not," Paris frowned at the console in front of him. He looked at the other numbers on the screen in regards to the speed they were travelling in the tunnel, but all he saw was the word 'error'. Without knowing the speed at which they were traveling, Paris knew the ship couldn't calculate the distance they travelled.

He looked back up at a worried Janeway and realized that they were lost in an unknown region of the Milky Way galaxy.

TBC.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Federation Starship Voyager, Unknown Region of space, a few seconds later.**

"B'Elanna," said Janeway into her commbadge while standing next to Paris, his expression telling her that they had very little information about their location. "I need sensors back up. All of them."

"On it, Captain, I need an hour at least," the chief engineer said into her comm-badge before beginning to direct repairs of the Warp Core while ordering several others under the command of her assistant Chief Engineer, Lt. Carey, to start diagnostics on Voyager's sensor array and then begin repairs on the sections that were damaged, "and get someone on sealing the plasma leaks!"

In the infirmary, Kes was standing by the unconscious Neelix whose body lay under a scanner while the Doctor began repairing the badly burned arm. Noticing the look of worry in the eyes of the Ocampan, he looked behind him while using a device that was regenerating the nerves in the man's arm.

"Captain, I'd like Lt. Paris to assist me in sick-bay," said the Doctor as he noticed the frantic situation around him as the injured crew were groaning in pain. He then looked at the bruises on Kes' arms and the soil stains on parts of her face and uniform. "He's on the way, Doctor," the Captain responded just as the Doctor handed the nerve regenerator to the Ocampan to keep her mind occupied. He then instructed her on what she needed to do since there were a lot more injured patients that needed attention, "and his nerves are already regenerating. Once they've been fully regenerated, we'll use a dermal regenerator, and then Mr. Neelix will be as good as new."

Kes nodded her head, her face still etched in worry, before she looked down at her love and started to hover the device over the entire length of Neelix's badly burned arm. Confident that Neelix was in good hands, the Doctor then rushed to the next person who was seriously injured and started to treat him while yelling out orders to the non-injured crewmembers who were untested and untrained in medicine.

He then, while operating on another crewmember who had a broken arm, stated to multi-task by giving the crewmembers who were not injured specific directions on what they needed to do. And they followed his orders to the letter. It would be a few hectic minutes later that the doors to sick-bay hissed open and Paris rushed in. The doctor immediately started to give him instructions, but not before telling the once who were on the mend to leave, that he needed the space for more injured.

Sighing, he then looked back at Kes who hand her hand gently lying on Neelix's forehead. The Doctor rushed to Kes, who said she had finished regenerating the nerves, and admired her work. The scanner showed that Neelix's nerve damage had been reversed, and it was time to regenerate the skin. The Doctor strode to another console, and picked up a cone shaped device and handed it to Kes. He told her what she needed to do, and then stepped back while watching Kes slowly sweep the device over Neelix's arm.

After a few seconds, he patted her on the back and asked her to use the nerve and dermal regenerator on the crewmembers in the infirmary with minor burns. The young woman nodded her head before the Doctor rushed away. He left Kes listening to the soft murmurs of the injured all around her, and the crew doing all they could to provide them with the best medical attention.

**Two hours later.**

Over the next two hours, B'Ellana insisting that she needed another hour after the initial one hour passed by for repairing the damaged parts of eh sensor array, sickbay and Engineering continued to be a hive of activity. In the meantime, the scene on the bridge was deceptively calm. Janeway was pacing the floor with her hands behind her back, Chakotay eying her while she continued to look out the view screen for the past hour. In the meantime, Tuvok and Kim continued to run scans with whatever sensors were still working.

However, even after an hour of trying with limited sensors, there was no sign of the unique radiation or the anomaly that brought them to this region of space. In addition, there was still no way to know how far they were away from Earth. Even the Computer wasn't able to tell them their current location.

"Limited information available," the ships' Computer would say much to Janeway's consternation.

At the end of the two hours, the Captain stopped pacing when B'elanna contacted her with some good news; all sensors were back up and that they would be regaining Warp power in another four hours. The red-haired woman breathed a sigh of relief while Tuvok and Kim looked at each other, the human showing relief on his face while Tuvok simply raised an eyebrow before going back to his console screen. Just as Chakotay stood up and was about to tell Kim to run a full scan, the Operation officer's console started to beep wildly. Chakotay and Janeway stared at the confusion on Kim's face as he looked at the console in front of him while whispering, "it's not possible." He then turned and took a step to the console behind him and ran diagnostics while asking B'Ellana if the sensors were checked before coming on line.

"I'm seeing it too, Harry," said the stunned Klingon as she stared at her beeping screen down in engineering. She were soon joined by Seska whose eyes widened at the information the sensors were spitting out.

"Ensign?" asked Janeway back on the bridge as she and Chakotay rushed up to him while B'ellana and Seska looked at each other, and then back at the screen in disbelief.

"Our sensors, before they were deactivated, detected a quantum variance in the anomaly that pulled us into this… this place." The Ensign said as Janeway stood next to him and watched the results of the scans with her eyes wide open. She understood what the data meant as she stepped back and allowed Chakotay to take a look. He then turned to her with confusion etched on his face, while Tuvok walked towards them.

"Once the sensors were reactivated, it conducted an automated scan… including a quantum scan of the surrounding stellar matter just as it was designed to do," Kim continued while looking at his superior officers, "the scans show we're in a different quantum reality."

"A different reality?" asked the Captain shaking her head before she remembered the odd readings they were getting on the helm, 'may be that…'

Suddenly, there was another beep from the console, indicating another scan was completed. The expression on Kim's face showed off an even bigger surprise was on the horizon, bigger than finding out that they were in another reality.

"Mr. Kim, what have you found?" asked Tuvok with his hands behind his back.

"We… we may have to reset our chronometers," said a still surprised Kim as Janeway and Chakotay looked at each other and then at Tuvok, who looked unworried, and back at Kim. Kim then shook his head before looking up at the Captain and said, "after running a scan of the background radiation, and comparing it to the radiation on our own reality, and… well the computer extrapolated our own recorded readings of the background radiation before we felt our reality to the quantum frequency in this reality and…"

"Ensign," said a frustrated Janeway stopping Kim from rambling on as he waved her hands, "calm down…."

"We're in the past." Kim blurted out, his face was showing his pain while Janeway stared back at him with her mouth wide open.

"Excuse me?" asked Chakotay shaking his head, "what do you mean the past?".

"Approximately speaking? We're in the year 2015," Kim said as he stepped back while Janeway checked his console. She then confirmed everything before looking up at Chakotay and Tuvok, and her heart broke as she looked at the Vulcan. His family was gone, they were in the past where his family didn't exist. And not just that, they were in another reality. Janeway, her eyes full of regret at her initial actions having stranded them in the Delta Quadrant, then looked away before telling Chakotay softly that she was going to be in her ready room.

"I want all senior staff in the briefing in thirty minutes, until then continue searching for the anomaly," the Captain whispered before she walked away, as if she was in a daze. The others on the bridge looked back at the exhaustion on Janeway's face as she passed them by. She then walked into her ready room where a panel was hanging from the ceiling, her coffee mug on the floor where the plating was wet with the black liquid. She then turned to the left and saw the cushions from the large couch strewn on the floor. The doors then slid shut with the Captain ordering the Computer to keep the door locked. As for Kim, he continued to stare at the digits on his screen, flashing 2015, while the other junior bridge crew could only stare at each other in worry and some with defeat on their faces. The young man felt a sharp pain in his chest as he remembered his parents and his life on Earth; if the computer was right, then they didn't exist in this reality. At least not yet.

Everyone they knew and loved were gone.

All their lives were changed. Again.

Janeway trudged up the two steps to the small lounge area and pick up the strewn cushion, and then placed in on the couch. She then sat down in complete silence while her hands were over her mouth. She was tired, she was feeling defeated, and all she wanted to do was lie down somewhere and cry. But she was the Captain of the ship, she told herself to take her 'break', gather her thoughts, and push the tears that were threatening to gather in her eyes, 'and then get out there and find your crew a way home.'

"Computer," there was a beep sound and the Captain stopped talking for a few seconds before speaking again with a crack in her voice, "Captain… Captain's personal log."

The computer then beeped again indicating that the system was ready to take her log. Janeway needed to talk to someone. She needed to scream out and curse their luck. But she couldn't do that either, and so, she continued her log to get her frustrations out of the way.

"I've done it again." She began in a soft voice while thinking about the crew and how devastated they were going to be with their current situation, "according to our sensors, we entered a quantum anomaly which seems to have torn through the time-space continuum. We find ourselves in the past of another Quantum Reality."

Janeway then chuckled in disbelief as she turned on her couch, and looked out at the stars, "this would be the start of a very unfunny joke if it wasn't true. It was bad enough that we had to fight our way through the Delta quadrant to get back home; but now we're were in another reality, we're in the past of another reality and we're searching for any sign of the anomaly that brought us here. I want this to be a fight we can win. I want to take my crew home to our reality, to our future."

Janeway then looked away from the stars and back down to her red coloured couch while trying to hold back the lump forming in her throat. She spent a few minutes regaining her composure, before starting to speak once again, "everyone we know haven't been born yet. Starfleet hasn't been formed yet, there is no Federation, and we're not even sure which region of space we're in. I am hoping that we find a way home. Even if it's to the Delta Quadrant of our own reality. We need to find the anomaly. We have to find the anomaly. We must."

**Engineering Room, USS Voyager, at that same time.**

Down in Engineering, while Kim was telling Janeway that they were in the past of another quantum reality, Seska was livid after she peeked at the screen that showed B'Ellana the same data that Kim had been seeing.

The Chief Engineer raised her hands and asked Seska, who was pointing at the screen behind her, to calm down. However, the truth was out of the bag as she looked behind Seska and saw some of the other officers, including Lyndsey Ballard, look at their screens before looking back at B'Ellana. Her heart sank when she looked at their faces… it was as if the world had ended for them. B'Ellana then tried to tuned away the screaming Seska as she looked at the others; most of whom were so disheartened that they stood in a daze near the computer screens.

"That bit…." Seska hissed in anger as she stepped towards B'Ellana.

"Don't even say what you were about to say," B'Ellana whispered angrily while glaring at Seska, who was pointing towards the door that led to Engineering. The Klingon knew that the Bajoran woman, her fellow Maquis, was about to call Captain Janeway a 'bitch', and there was no way she was letting any disrespect reign in her Engineering room. B'Ellana straightened up and took a step forward and got into Seska's face while continuing to whisper, "that's our Captain you're talking about. And…"

"You've seen the data!" yelled Seska pointing at the screen behind B'Ellana.

"Lieutenant!" growled B'Ellana, and Seska immediately closed her mouth just as she was about to say something else, "report to your quarters."

"B'Ellana, I…"

"Report to your quarters," the Klingon hissed as Seska stared at her with eyes wide open. She had never seen B'Ellana as angry as she was at that very moment, "that's where you will be confined until you calm down."

"I…"

"And if I ever hear any disrespect like that ever again," hissed B'Ellana in a low voice, "you will be reported to Tuvok, and you will spend time in the brig. Is that clear?"

"B'Ellana…'

"Have I made myself clear, lieutenant?"

"Yes," Seska nodded her head before she looked away and asked if she could be dismissed.

"You're dismissed," B'Ellana whispered. She watched Seska walk out the door, and then turned to the others in the engineering room, "I know everyone has seen the same data. And yes, it seems we're in a little bit of trouble. We take it one step at a time. All the sensors arrays are back up, and hopefully we'll find the anomaly that brought us here and use it to get back home. In the meantime, I want the Warp Core back up… I want us to remain occupied." She then stared at her staff before she sighed, and continued, "I know what all of you are thinking. I'm thinking the same thing too; I want to go home. So, we do everything we can to help our Captain return us home. Now get back to work."

B'Ellana sighed and then rubbed her forehead in frustration as everyone returned to work. It was then that she raised her head upon hearing an announcement by Chakotay for the senior staff to meet in the briefing room in thirty minutes.

**Briefing Room, forty minutes later.**

Janeway could feel the tension in the room as she stared at the Doctor, whose face was on the screen to her right side. She then looked at Paris, B'Ellana, Chakotay, Kes who had changed her clothes, Tuvok, and Neelix who was already fully healed from his injury. All of them, save for the Doctor, were seated around the green coloured table in front of them.

Janeway then took in a deep breath before leaning forward, places her hands in the surface of the table, and then spoke.

"Neelix?"

"I'm healed, Captain," the Talaxian said nodding his head as he showed everyone the healed arm, "although I have to say that the kitchen has seen better days."

"As our morale officer," the Captain said, "I need you to do something amazing to keep the crew spirits up. I know it's a big request, and…."

"And I'll come up with something, Captain," said the Talaxian as Janeway nodded her head.

"Doctor?"

"There were crewmembers here with scratches and bruises that were easily healed, Captain," the Doctor said while he sat behind his desk in sickbay while there were other members of the crew lying on the biobed's. "however, I have a few here with broken bones. They'll need a day, at the most, before they can report for duty."

"Thank you, Doctor," Janeway said before taking a deep breath and then turning to B'Ellana. The Klingon then told Janeway that the warp core repairs were ahead of schedule, and they would be able to restart the matter-antimatter reaction in two hours. Janeway nodded her head at the suggestion while Kim told the Captain that he had the Computer extrapolated the locations of the star maps from their own time to their locations in 2015, "but even after considering all the factors, including the fact that we're in a different quantum reality, the Computer can't come up with a model that tells us where we are."

"I'm still getting the same error on the helm, Captain," said Paris as Janeway looked at him, and then at Chakotay, and then she turned to Tuvok. It was then that Chakotay sat back on his seat and stared at the table thoughtfully before looking and saying that while their scans weren't showing them the location of the anomaly, "we could light it up like a beacon if we could extend our warp field outwards."

"The field would, as you say, light it up, and then we could use the deflector to… umm… it could work," said B'ellana as everyone waited on her to finish what she wanted to say. She then looked at the expectant faces staring back at her and said that they could use the deflector dish to pull the tear open while tuned to their own native quantum frequency. "We could open the tear, and then fly thorough. Of course, we'll have to factor in the temporal displacement and…"

"Get it done, B'Ellana," Janeway said. The Klingon was about to leave her seat when Kes leaned forward, and placed her arms on the table. She then gently asked, almost shyly, as if she was afraid to even say the very thing that she was aware the others were thinking.

"What if we can't find the breach, and go back to our reality and our time?"

It was a question that Janeway pondered as well when she was in her ready room. What would she do if there wasn't a way to head back home? She leaned back in her chair and stared at a nervous Kes while the others looked at the table. She knew they were thinking the same thing as well, and it was just that Kes was brave enough to ask the question.

The truth was, Janeway didn't know. There were many things to consider if they could not head back home.

She then turned to Chakotay who said, "Kes has a point, Captain. We need alternatives. And the crew has to be mentally prepared for the possibility of remaining stuck in the past."

"I've considered that possibility," Janeway whispered putting her hand on the table from covering her mouth.

"There's the M-class planet nearby," Paris noted, not believing what he was even suggesting. The man, at least a part of him, thought to himself that he was already acting defeated, 'We'll find the breach, and then we'll be home.'

"The planet is in a pre-industrial state of development," said Tuvok thoughtfully looking at the table. He then raised his head before looking at the Captain, "the Prime Directive would apply in an ordinary situation such as this. However, this is not an ordinary situation."

"No kidding," B'Ellana said shaking her head.

"Are we really talking about giving up?" asked Kim as he leaned forward.

"No," Janeway replied forcefully, "we are not giving up. I want everything put into the search for that anomaly. It has to be here even if we can't pick it up at the moment. Extend the warp field, and that could give the first clue on where the anomaly is located. And then I want a way to open the breach so that we can go home to our own reality, and our own time. But… but we also need to face the possibility that we could be stuck here."

"Tuvok's right," said Chakotay, "this isn't an ordinary situation. For one thing, none of our date regressed star maps correspond to this reality. Then there's the fact that we could set a course to Earth once we regain warp drive, but the Earth we're heading towards… well, it's in the past. We'll be changing their development if Voyager appears in orbit. And we wouldn't know how long it would take for us to get there. It would be the same situation with Vulcan, the Klingon homeworld, Ocampa, and Tellax."

"Captain," said Kes leaning forward, "the planet would have food we could harvest, soil samples that we could bring back to Voyager so that I could start growing our own food once again."

"There's only three hundred humanoid life signs," said Chakotay as he stood up and then walked to a panel. He then tapped the LCARs and watched the screen as the image of the planet appeared. He then asked the Computer to locate the humanoid life signs; and as a result, three small villages were identified… each several miles from one another located on one part of the southern continent. The rest of the planet consisting of three other large continents, and four smaller ones were void of humanoid life. But it was the greenery, and the abundance of oceans and rivers that held the possibility of harvesting food with which they could bolster their reserves.

"And then we could move onto the next step," Chakotay said before looking away from the screen and back at Janeway, "we need to search the system for deposits of dilithium."

Janeway nodded her head and looked away from Chakotay, and sighed before speaking, "B'Ellana, I want the warp core up and ready. Once that's done, activate a warp field and extend it outwards towards the breach that brought us here. If we find it, then initiate a deflector pulse with our reality's quantum frequency. Hopefully it'll open the breach. In the meantime, Chakotay, I want you to lead an away team to the planet. Take a shuttle to the uninhabited areas and…"

"Captain," interrupted Neelix, "may I recommend that the away team leave for the settlements. I understand that there are Prime Directive issues, however, I have never seen this planet before. And neither is it in the Federation database. If we are to harvest edible items from the surface, we should know what is and what is not edible."

"And the best way to find out would be the markets in the settlements, if there are any," said Kes, "I could ask around… I could say that…"

"Looks like Kes has already volunteered," chuckled Chakotay.

"I want a small team heading to the settlements," said Janeway, "keep phasers, communicators, and tricorders out of sight."

"I'd like Harry and Kes with me, Captain," Chakotay said before looking at the three of them, "Harry, I want you to conduct a sensor sweep of the people in the largest settlement. The more people there are, the more likely we'll be able to go unnoticed. Then use the sensor data and replicate a set of civilian clothes for the both of us."

"Understood," said Kim softly. He was unhappy that he was being ordered to travel to the planet, to him it was already a way of saying that they were giving up. However, it was an order… and he had to follow it.

"The warp core should be back up in about two hours," Janeway said as she looked at Chakotay, "I want the away team back on the ship with everything you've collected by then. Hopefully, we'd be able to open the breach and head home. But if not, the data would serve if…. And I mean if, we have to settle down in one of the more isolated areas of the planet. If the worst does happen, B'Ellana, I want our deep space probes ready to launch."

"I understand, ma'am," said B'Ellana nodding her head. She knew in her heart that they wouldn't need to use the probes, that they would be able to get home. She told herself that the crew had gone through several scraps and through at the end with victory; and this time they were going to be victorious again. She also knew that the Captain had to be ready for anything, and the chief engineer wondered how the crew would take the news if they were not successful.

And then as if she read B'Ellana's mind, the Captain said, "I'll make an announcement to the rest of the crew. They need to know what's happening."

"I'll have the sedatives prepared," the Doctor deadpanned.

Janeway gave a small smile before taking a deep breath, "Chakotay, Kes, Harry… you have an away mission. Get to it. You have two hours. The rest of you, be prepared to head home… but at the same time be prepared to… just be prepared for anything."

"Understood," Tuvok said.

"Dismissed."

TBC.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Planet designated M7Y-635, forty-five minutes later.**

Kim and Chakotay were at the two pilots seats while Kes was seated behind Chakotay in the shuttle as it exited warp and entered a standard orbit. The ship then started scanning the surface while Kes got off her seat and placed her hands on the back if the two pilot seats and stared at the screens on the console.

"Harry?" asked Chakotay as he tapped the console in front of him, "I'm setting a course to a vegetation covered alcove two kilometres away form the largest village."

"Copy," Kim said as he looked at the screen which showed off an empty lake surrounded by tall grass which was devoid of any life-signs, at least humanoid life signs. Sing the shuttle craft didn't have a transporter module, the only choice was to land out of sight in in such a way that their approach would be unseen by the natives below. Ki, them confirmed that their approach should keep them away from prying eyes before he pressed a few more buttons and the shuttle banked before heading for the planet's atmosphere.

With the need to keep their arrival a secret, Chakotay didn't feel a fly-over would be ideal since it would break the Prime Directive; and as it was, they were just toeing the line between exploration and breaking General Order One. It would be ten minutes later that the Shuttlecraft landed, and then the engines were deactivated. Chakotay notified Voyage that they were on the planet, and set to head for the village.

"Be careful," Janeway said over the subspace radio before Chakotay nodded his head and then got off his seat. The screen turned off, he then turned and walked to the rear of the ship with Kes, in a purple shirt underneath a cream coloured knee length tunic. She also had a band around her head that helped to cover the points in her ears while her companions had on loose fitting shirts and trousers. Chakotay then pressed a button that opened a rear door, and then they walked out in a single file. Setting their feet on the soft ground, the grass getting squashed under their boots, the door to the shuttle craft was then closed while Kim took out his Tricorder and made note of their location and the direction of the village.

"We'll split up once we enter the village," Chakotay said as they walked onwards away from the shuttle, "it would allow us to cover more ground in a shorter time. Kes, you and Harry check for any edible produce while I look around."

"Understood," Harry said while trying to hide his disappointment. He believed that he would be of better use to Janeway in Voyager instead of going along on what he believed was a wild goose chase. They had arrived in another time and reality, and the Captain needed all hands on deck to do everything they could to head back home. He glanced at Kes, who was looking around at the grassland and trees in the distance while there were mountains hundreds of kilometres away; the same mountains they passed flying over in the shuttlecraft.

"Set the tricorders on a wide spectrum continuous scan," said Chakotay as he tapped on the tricorder in his hands, "we can deal with the data once we head back to Voyager. I don't want the natives to know we have this technology."

"Understood," Kim said taking out his tricorder and setting it to continuously scan their surroundings.

Once they were done with setting the devices, the three Voyager crew members saw the tall grass standing still all around them while the clouds in the sky helped to shield them from the sun. They didn't feel a brush of a breeze as they walked up to a gravel trail that curved onwards as they walked on towards the large village. It would be ten minutes later that the three of them were in eye sight of a the village with several houses and what seemed to be stone walled four story buildings in the interior.

**The Village of Prasane, 1430 hours.**

While the Voyager crew were walking towards the village, in one of the buildings in the interior was a woman wearing gloves and a face mask as she was handed a small rectangular clear strip. She placed it on her glove covered finger, and then she turned on her seat and asked the child sitting on the chair to her left to open her mouth.

"Say 'aaahhh'" she said. Smiling under the mask as the nine year old girl opened her mouth, the woman's short shoulder length blonde hair framed her face, highlighting her brown eyes as she used her finger and gently placed the strip on the girl's tongue. Once it was on the tongue, the doctor smiled while the girl said she felt a tingling sensation on her tongue. "That's a good thing," the woman said as the child stood up and walked past her with a smile and a wave.

The doctor saw the girl go on to a middle-aged redhaired woman and then held onto her hand. The both of them then waved at the doctor before leaving the building via another doorway to the pavement outside. She saw them pass one of the many windows before turning to the middle-aged man who sat down at the table. A young man in a blue shirt, the town doctor, who was sitting next to her then read out the man's name, made a mark in the town register. The male doctor then reached into a metal case that was embossed with the loge of the Atlantis expedition and took out a numbered, rectangular, case. He wrote down the number on the town register next to the man's name, and then opened in before taking out the clear blue strip and handing it to the doctor.

The line in front of her had gone down significantly than when she began administering the medicine to the people in the village. The lines had been staggered through different times at three different sites in the town since that very early morning, and now it was almost complete for this village. She knew that the other two villages were already done, and that the other doctors in the town administering the medicine would be meeting her in this location before they went back to Atlantis via the Stargate in the forests to the south of the village.

"Dr. Keller," said a portly man with a goatee as he squeezed past the remaining people in line and approached Dr Jennifer Keller, Atlantis' Chief Medical Officer, "once again, thank you for taking the trouble for all this." The man then motioned towards the people in the lone before turning back to her, "it seems that the other doctors your people have sent have completed their tasks as well."

"There's no trouble, Councillor Ateen," the young woman said as she looked up at the man who put his hands into his trouser pockets and then turned to stare at the people lined up. The Doctor gave the next person in line the strip and then she glanced over at the leader of the village before asking, "I believe you've taken the treatment with Dr. Halley, you're not feeling any side-effects?"

"Just drowsiness," he replied nodding his head before glancing at the four people holding weapons in the room.

"I have already documented some instances of fever, joint pain, and rashes to the doctor," added the town doctor, Dr. Milas, sitting next to Dr. Keller as Councillor Ateen turned his head to look at him. "I have medication for those side-effects but there has been nothing so severe that we must use them."

"Your people's immune systems are being rebuilt," Dr. Keller said as she placed a strip on the tongue of a teen woman. Upon hitting the tongue, the strip started to slowly dissolve with a 'fizzing' effect as the teenager slowly got up off the seat and was replaced by another young woman, "we heard about your world from an…. Well, an ally of ours and… well… here we are."

"I wish your people were here when it happened," Milas whispered. Dr. Keller was about to say something, but the young man continued to say that he didn't mean to sound ungrateful, and that he was glad the Wraith known as Michael was dead. "But if you had found out about us sooner, then maybe things could have changed."

"Over two thousand dead after the initial infection from all three towns," said Dr. Keller as she recalled the report from the database they had found on Michaels experiments only three years ago, after Atlantis returned to the Pegasus Galaxy, "four hundred dead from sicknesses aggravated by the immune system being compromised." Dr. Keller looked at the doctor with a sadness in her eyes, and then up at Councillor Ateen before taking a deep breath and saying, "we've developed this cure after studying the survivors of the modified Hoffan plague for over a year. We've predicted it would take a course of a strip every two weeks for a year; and we're right. The traces of the drug in your blood tests have been in steady decline over the past year. We'll take another sample next week, and hopeful that'll show full remission. And you're not the only ones we've been administering this to. There are fourteen other worlds out there that're getting this cure, and it's been shown to eradicate the Hoffan plague."

The doctor nodded his head and then sighed while Dr. Keller continued administering the medicine to the next patient.

"Just… just thank you," said the Councillor. Dr. Keller looked back up at him, smiled, and then went back to the old man who had just sat down.

**Entrance to Prasane, ten minutes later.**

Chakotay, Kim, and Kes looked around at the crowds walking about their own business. IN the midst of the throngs of people, they could smell the sweet scent of the local flowers being put out on a stall near a few hatch topped building near the entrance. It was coupled with various other plants that had Kes smiling before she walked toward the stall. In the meantime, Harry was using his tricorder to get readings on the people who were walking by with Chakotay using his body to block the view of the small device. It would be a minute later, while Kes was walking back towards them that the tricorder spouted the information they needed.

"They're human," Kim said as Chakotay looked over his shoulder at the young man while Kes walked up to them and said that the flowers smelled nice. She continued to say that the purple variety with orange highlights were edible, while the others were taken from the nearby forest. By the time she stopped talking Kes noticed the look of confusion on Kim's face while Chakotay was looking around at the people around them. "Harry? Commander?"

"These people are human," Kim said putting the device away while staring at Kes, who was also surprised, and then turning to Chakotay.

"How…"

"There are historians on Earth who believe that ancient aliens came to this galaxy and seeded many different worlds with their genetic code," Chakotay said interrupting KEs, "that's why there are worlds in the Alpha quadrant with humanoid populations; life on those planets then evolved to fit their home worlds."

Kes then nodded her head while the three of them walked into the village. They split up, with Kes and Kim heading one way while Chakotay slowly walked towards another direction. The Starfleet officer was going to explore the outskirts of the town while Kes and Kim examined the interior and the market.

Kim and Kes walked through the throngs of people and stopping at stalls that were selling items brought from the other towns and the fertile farms three kilometres away. Kes, looking at the arm length stacks of vegetables, whispered to Kim, "I could use the soil these plants were grown in, Harry."

"We'll make a stop before heading to Voyager." Kes nodded her head at Kim's response before asking the young man on the other side of the stall for details on where the farm was located. Kim added that they were looking to purchase more than what the young man had on hand. While the young man behind the stall started talking about the cost of a trade with Kes and Kim, the officer was glancing past the left shoulder of the stall over. He stared at the table of what looked to be fish while another merchant to the right had several cages of different animals.

While Kes was getting directions to the farm to buy some soil and plants, Kim was looking around away from the cages of the animals and the grunts the boar like creatures were making. He then turned to Kes and told her that he would be in the adjacent merchant's table. The young woman nodded her head. He was sure that the tricorders were taking readings of the people, animals, and plants.. and those readings could separated once they return to Voyager.

'And then back to our own reality,' Kim thought to himself. As he was walking toward the other merchant while the tricorder silently took readings, he visually scanned his surroundings. Kim heard Kes laughing, and looked over his shoulder to make sure she was alright. Smiling as she was handed a purple leafy stalk, which they then sniffed, Kim turned and found himself at the counter full of varieties of fish.

But before he could say anything to the merchant, he noticed out of the corner of his eyes that there were a few people that stood out in black uniforms. He turned his head and narrowed his eyes at them while Kes walked towards him after getting the information she needed. Kes walked up to Harry and stood next to him as the people in black separated and one of them, a blonde woman with brown eyes, was walking towards their area. Harry stared at the woman in what he could see now was a black vest over a black-grey patterned uniform. As she walked in their direction, the woman caught Kim's eyes as she walked past and smiled.

Harry, flustered while Kes stared at him and chuckled, returned the smile and nodded his head. As she passed by, Harry noticed the patch on her left arm, and he was stunned. Once the soldier turned her head back to the front, Kim's mouth hung open before he stared at Kes in confusion. He then looked back at the woman looking back at him with a smile before she turned her head once again and walked off.

"Kes, we need to follow her," Kim said as he gently pulled her along while walking a few feet behind the woman.

"Harry?" asked Kes before asking if there was something about the woman he noticed that was odd.

"The flag on her arm," he whispered as they followed her while he clicked the communication badge on the inside of his lapel. The badge then connected him to Chakotay, "Commander, we need to talk. Can you meet us at the rendezvous point?"

"What flag?" asked Kes while she walked next to Kim. They were watching their stride, not too fast or not too slow, as they walked behind the soldier. Kes looked at Kim while Chakotay responded, as he walked past a building while glancing into the windows. He was about to call Kim on the badge as well when he caught sight of the armed individuals guarding the exit where Dr. Keller was working on her latest patient.

"Meet me there, now," Chakotay whispered as he walked off casually. And then, once he was out of sight, Chakotay walked with longer strides towards the entrance.

"Harry," whispered Kes as she held her arm, "what's going on?"

Harry turned his head to Kes, and then looked straight ahead, "the arm had a patch. It was black and grey, just like the uniform. It's a flag we've learnt about in elementary school about Earth history."

"Earth?" asked Kes confused, "we're on an alien world in the past, how could anyone have a patch of an Earth flag? Is it the Federation? Maybe…"

"A flag of the United States," Kim said as they walked towards the entrance while the soldier walked into another street and entered a stone walled building along with other soldiers who were waiting outside on the gravel. Kim and Kes continued walking, with Kes taking a look at the soldiers while walking onwards, "how is that possible?"

"We could ask them," said Kes.

"We need to talk to the Commander," Kim said, "this is the past, and…"

"Of another reality," Kes reminded him, "doesn't that mean we should not discount the possibility that people from Earth could have developed space travel? I mean… if that really is an Earth flag, then it's possible that in this reality interstellar travel developed early."

"We need to talk to the Commander, and then to the Captain," said Kim as they neared the entrance, "this was something unexpected. Really, really, unexpected."

TBC.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Town of Prasane.**

Laura Cadman, a Marine in the US Marine Corp, had only just been promoted to Major and was in charge of her own AR- Atlantis Recon- team. AR-Three was tasked with AR-Four and Five to accompany the three medicals teams led by Dr. Keller, Smith, and Archibald, to the planet designated as M7Y-635 to administer follow-up medicine for the population. The young woman with blonde hair and brown eyes was due for a break while other took over her job guarding one of the doctors. She was about to head back to the bottom floor of one of the buildings were they were keeping metal cases of weapons and ammunition, as well as food and medical supplies, to take a break before she was due to patrol the perimeter of the village with the rest of her team.

As she was walking towards the building, she passed by a handsome man with brown hair standing next to a blonde female with short hair, and a bandana around her head. Cadman thought he was cute, and their eyes locked for a few seconds while she continued to walk. With a smile on her face, she broke their eye contact and looked straight ahead with the silly smile on her face before she looked back over her shoulder one more time.

And she saw the young man looking back at her, and then hurriedly look away.

'He's shy,' she thought to herself. She kept on walking while the man and female, Kim and Kes respectively, walked behind her through the throngs of people in the market. Cadman turned left into a walkway while the two Voyager personnel walked past. Cadman nodded her head at Cartesi and Brewer, members of her team who were waiting on her while Captain Edwards was inside the building. It was the town's eating and gathering area; and the three of them walked in to sit with Edwards at the corner table next to some windows.

"What's good?" Cadman asked as she sat next to Edwards while Cartesi and Brewer across from them at the wooden table. Cadman glanced past Cartesi and saw the crowd of people in the eating area. Some of them were going about their own business eating their food while others were glancing at the four of them and a few other Marines who were relaxing and talking with some of the locals. Cadman then turned to Edwards and stared expectantly at her waiting for an answer.

Edwards nodded at another table where a waitress, who could be out of an early twentieth century tavern, wearing a dress that showed off a lot of cleavage, served a group of laughing middle-aged men some bowls of steaming stew followed by two large loaves of crusted bread. Looking up and down at the waitress as she as leaning forward to serve the group, Cartesi turned back to Cadman and said that he liked the sights.

"Aren't you… you know… married?" Brewer teased the young male lieutenant who looked away with guilt on his face.

"Okay, fine," said Cadman as she raised her hand and gained the attention of the buxom server. She then motioned for the young woman to approach them; in the meantime, Cadman enjoyed watching the redness taking over Cartesi's face. As she looked away out the window next to her. She saw the young Asian man from earlier, as well as the woman standing next to him, now talking to another man.

While they were located far away from where she was, Cadman could just make out what looked to be a sort of tattoo on the taller man's face, 'a tribal tattoo maybe? Haven't seen anyone here with that, or else I would have remembered.' She glanced back at her team, and listened to them joking before glancing back out the window once again. Cadman saw the Asian man waving his arms about while the woman had her hands behind her. She stood in the middle while the taller man had his hands on his waist. She then observed the taller man with the tattoo nodding his head before signalling towards the town gate.

Cadman didn't really think it was unusual as they started to walk out of the town. She looked back at Cartesi who was giving his order to the waitress. She chuckled as the young man's face became flushed while he locked his gave at the waitress' face, "I'll have the same- stew and bread." Cadman made her order and then turned to grin at Cartesi while the others laughed at his obvious nervousness while the waitress walked away, "you're bad, Cartesi. Maybe I should warn your young wife that you…"

"No," he shook his head as Cadman leaned back and chuckled. Cadman glanced out the window and saw that the three strangers had made their way out of town, and were walking quickly away. Cadman didn't think anything of it, believing that the three were from another village before turning back to her teammates.

"Maybe we should have asked them for help, Commander?" asked Kim as he walked in-between Chakotay and Kes on the way back to the shuttle craft that brought them to the planet. They were walking in a hurry, their strides long, wondering to himself what this whole situation meant. He wasn't sure if being in the past where Earth seemed to be developed enough to become a space-faring civilisation meant that the rules set down in the Prime Directive could be set aside. He hoped so at least. Kim wanted to go home, to his Earth; and they may have found some people who could help them.

In the meantime, Chakotay was going through the logs on his tricorder while they hurried back. He tapped on the buttons and brought up the scans it had taken of the men guarding the doorway he walked fast, the same men he saw had the flags on Canada and the United States on their sleeves. Back when they met at the entrance, they had a quick discussion of what they had seen before he opted to head back to the shuttle craft. This was something that no one had suspected; people from Earth were from another planet and there were no obvious signs of advanced technology from Voyager's scans.

Chakotay, Kes, and Kim had so many questions in their minds with the latter two occasionally asking each other what they thought was going on. They were asking how it was that the people from Earth got to the planet, if they had Warp Drive, how far Earth was, and why was it that they couldn't get any correlation on their regressed Star Maps.

"There's something going on, Commander," Kes gently said as she looked at his superior officer who was still examining the data collected. She saw a frown developing on his face before putting the tricorder away. He then turned his head at Kes and Kim before saying that scans showed they were completely human.

"As for what's going on? There's no way to know unless we make First Contact with these people," Chakotay said, "but then again, I've also scanned their weapons as chemically propelled kinetic energy weapons, and another weapon of unknown origin."

"A mixture of early twenty first century weapons and… alien?" asked Kim.

"Maybe these people happened upon alien technology on Earth and somehow reversed engineered it to travel to other planets?" asked Kes looking at both Chakotay and Kim.

"It's possible," said Chakotay. At that, Kim stopped walking, soon followed by Kes who looked back at him, as did Chakotay.

"We can ask them to help us, Commander," Kim said what was running through his mind, "if the Federation exists in some form or another, then they would understand that…"

"Harry," Chakotay said. He could see that the young man was yearning to go back home to their reality. So was he, and so was Kes. But Chakotay knew that there were issues that needed to be addressed, "for on thing, we don't know if there is anything like the Federation that exists in this reality. We don't even know if Earth has an United Earth government, or the Earth of old which comprised different nations. From the flags, I'm guessing that it's the latter or it could simply be people honouring their roots; fact is that we don't know. We need to take our time on this, Harry."

Kim didn't know what else he could say without sounding insubordinate. He continued to listen while glancing at Kes, who held his arm, as Chakotay explained they needed to contact the Captain before they did anything else. Chakotay said that yes, Earth could very well have space faring capabilities, but it the planet was divided along the old state lines of sovereignty, then any information of technological advance from Voyager could pit one country against another for control of that technology and knowledge.

"We need to take this one step at a time," Chakotay explain.

"Contacting Voyager would give us a chance to find out how much longer B'Ellana has to repair the Warp Drive," Kes added as Kim closed his eyes and nodded his head.

Chakotay then added, "we'll contact Voyager, report our findings to the Captain, and then we'll head back to the village and continue gathering data. Our best-case scenario is that we can find the breach by extending the warp field. Once we find it, we go home with data on the planet wish we could use back in our own reality once we reach the Alpha Quadrant."

"That's what I'm holding hope for, Commander," Kim said, "but if…"

"If we still can't make it back?" Chakotay said, "then perhaps we can discuss the next stage- contacting these people here."

"Commander," Kes said looking at the taller man, "I could head back to the town and take more scans. In the meantime, you and Harry can contact the Captain. We'll meet in the town center."

"You sure?" asked Chakotay as he eyed Kes who then nodded her head.

"Harry, stay with Kes," Chakotay turned to Kim and ordered. Kim frowned, but nodded his head at the order. The group then parted ways, with Chakotay heading for the shuttle so that he could contact Voyager while Kes and Kim headed back to the town. The two of them were ordered to stay low, while continuing their scans of the area and trying to get close to the humans from Earth without being found out.

**Voyager, at the same time.**

With another officer having taken Kim's spot at the operations console, Janeway scanned a PADD she was just handed by a junior officer. It was a report from Engineering that the repairs to the Warp Drive was on schedule. The Captain was on the bridge, in her seat, while engineers were repairing the ceiling panels hanging precariously in her ready room. The damage was caused the bumpy journey through the subspace breach that brought Voyager to this time and space.

In addition, the coffee stain from her fallen mug hitting the floor was also being taken out. Neelix was planning a get together in the Mess Hall for when they returned to their time and space in the Delta Quadrant. The Captain had already consulted with B'Ellana and asked her if it was possible for them to return back to their future, but in the Alpha quadrant.

Janeway's heart fell when the Chief Engineer shook her head and said it wasn't possible. The were stuck in the Delta quadrant. Back in the here and now on the bridge, Janeway tried to put away the thoughts of her mistakes to the back of her mind while the others were doing their own work. It was just as she was about to get up off her chair that the engineers working in her ready room walked out. The lead engineer nodded his head at the Captain, and then walked towards the turbo-lift.

Just as the doors to the turbo lift closed, and Janeway told Tuvok that she would be in her ready room, Ensign Ayala who had taken over Kim's duties looked up at the Captain and said that sensors were detecting a strange subspace radiation spike.

"I am detecting it as well," Tuvok said as Janeway stopped walking towards her ready room. Instead she changed direction and rushed up the steps to Tuvok's station while Ayala was saying, from the tactical console, that the subspace signature was similar to the breach that brought them to this location in time and space.

"On screen," the Captain said. The screen in front of Paris now showed a purple hued breach where it once showed the starfield in front of them. However, two ships exited the breach before it vanished much to Janeway's surprise. She walked down the steps to just behind Paris while Tuvok was telling her that scans indicated the configuration of the mysterious ship did not correspond with any alien vessel in the Federation or Starfleet databases. Janeway looked back at Tuvok who said that scans were ongoing before she looked at Ayala who had his back to her while tapping on the screens behind him.

"The ships are over..." Tuvok stopped talking and looked up from his console at the Captain who looked back at him, "Captain, the ships are nearly five thousand meters in length." Janeway stood in stunned silence as Tuvok continued to say that scans showed there were a little over eight thousand life-forms on board, and that the ship itself was made of an organic hull with several holes around the hull, "scans show those holes are part of an extensive weapons system. I am detecting.."

"Captain," Ayala said as he turned and looked at the console in front of him. His face was taut with worry before looking up, "sensors are detecting a massive power surge to the weapon points on the hull."

"Red alert!" yelled Janeway. Alarms started to blare as the bridge went dark while red lights were flashing from various sections of the bridge, "open a channel."

"Open," Paris said.

"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager," the Captain said Tuvok reported that the shields were up, as were the phasers array's and the photon torpedoes, "we are on a mission of peaceful exploration from the planet Earth, and..."

"They're opening fire,Captain," Ayala cried. The Captain ordered evasive manoeuvres at full impulse before ordering B'Ellana to push as much power towards shields and weapons from the auxiliary power generators. Voyager banked to port as rapid fired blue bolts of energy from the mysterious ship were headed towards it. Some of the energy bursts hit the shields, causing the whole ship to shake while B'Ellana cried out from engineering through the communication system that shields were at ninety percent from being hit by a volley of ten shots. It seemed as if the entire alien vessel opened fire while the other one opened a breach and flew into it.

"Fire phasers at their power distribution systems," the Captain said just as Tuvok added that over fifty fighters were being launched from the second ship after a breach opened, and it exited in orbit of the planet.

"The fighters are approaching the planet."

The Captain acknowledged Tuvok before ordering Paris to contact Chakotay and the others to warn the away team. She then sat down on her chair, "attack pattern Janeway Alpha 6."

Voyager banked starboard and then fired one shot after another of her orange beams of energy. It cut through the hull, cause explosions in the interior as the mysterious vessel banked, slowly, while continuing to fire. The blue energy burst impacted Voyager's shields just as the Federation ship fired three photon torpedoes at a section of the dorsal hull. The torpedoes impacted, and then caused several explosions on the hull of the purple coloured alien vessel.

However, the ship still continued to fire while Voyager avoided as many of the blue bolts as possible. Back on the ship, the ship shook as the shields weakened to fifty percent, with B'Ellana screaming that there were plasma leaks in decks five, six, and seven just as the ship violently shook again.

"Tuvok," the Captain said as she looked back at her Tactical Officer, "fire."

Tuvok nodded his head as he targeted a full spread of torpedoes on the thickened section of the dorsal section of the purple ship. He then fired a full spread as Voyager rolled hard to port over a large bump on the surface of the mysterious ship. Tuvok's scans indicated that that section could very well be a location of the power source, with the thick organic hull taking the place of any shields. To the Vulcan, it was interesting that the mysterious ship had no warp signatures or a deflector dish, and those facts piqued his curiosity as to how it obtained faster-than-light travel. However, that was a answer for another time.

Voyager shook violently as Neelix was thrown to the floor of the Mess Hall, while several engineers and members of the crew were slammed against the walls. There were two explosions in the bridge from the port consoles, with Ayala rushing to the young officer who was laying still on the floor. Janeway then turned to Tuvok and ordered him to destroy the ship.

"Firing," Tuvok said. A full spread of torpedoes headed for the 'bump' which was already healing from the previous torpedo strikes. However, this time, with a combination of the phasers and the torpedoes hitting the area Tuvok believed were the power generators. Voyager banked away just as the final torpedo hit the ship, resulting in a massive explosion that tore apart the mysterious vessel. Janeway was panting as her heart raced while she watched the massive vessel that attacked them, tear itself up thanks to the power generators overloading.

"Captain," Paris said as he turned around from the helm which was releasing smoke from the edges of the console, "the other ship is a minute away from the planet."

"Have you managed to contact the away team?"

"Communications are down."

The Captain then sighed and shook her head. Voyager was taking a beating, and now more systems were damaged. But Janeway knew that she couldn't leave the away team alone, that she needed to do something. She pushed aside thoughts of the Prime Directive and ordered B'Ellana to reroute all emergency power to the engines.

"Set course for the planet, full impulse."

TBC.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Prasene, five minutes later.**

Cadman soaked up the thick brown gravy with the torn piece of crusty bread in her hand from the bowl, and then popped it in her mouth. She then picked up the wooden spoon and dug into her bowl of meat stew, meat which Cartesi swore tasted like beef, mixed with vegetables that looked and tasted like potatoes, purple coloured celery, and carrots. The latter was green in colour and so it took some time for the AR and medical teams in the Town to get used to the dish over the past few days. Cadman scooped up the thick brown gravy, a small piece of potato and the 'carrots' which her wooden spoon while using her other hand to tear off a piece of bread. The others were doing the same as well. They were having their lunch before heading back to their assignments.

At least that's how their day was supposed to have gone.

While laughing and joking with her colleagues, Cadman glanced at the entrance to the meal hall and saw the young Asian man and the blonde woman from earlier. She wondered what they were doing back so early, especially since they only just left the town. She glanced at the two of them as she ate, and then shifted her eyes back to her team, and then shifted her eyes back to the two newcomers who walked over to an empty table seat where they were approached by the waitress.

Cartesi noticed that Cadman was glancing at something behind him and so turned around on his chair and looked over his shoulder at the young Asian man and the blonde woman taking a seat. He then turned back to Cadman while Brewer glanced back over his shoulders, and then turned to Cadman with a questioning look on his face. At the same time, Edwards, who was seat next to Cadman, craned her neck to get a good look at the newcomers. Once she did, the young woman turned to Cadman and whispered, "he's cute, ma'am."

A smile former on Cadman's face before she stuck her tongue out at Edwards. Edwards smirked at the Major who then looked away and took another bite of her food. While she was chewing, Cadman glanced at Kim whose body was facing her while the blonde woman was seated across from him.

"Anything suspicious about him, ma'am?" asked Brewer as he scooped some of the food onto his spoon. That question left the others turning to Cadman with questioning looks on their faces.

Cadman stared at her teammates and knew that they were expecting an answer. So she sighed and whispered while leaning forward, "I saw that guy and his friend leaving the town, and now they're back here. It's just…"

Before Cadman could finish what she wanted to say, her radio started to emit a soft beeping sound. She stared at the others with eyes wide open before the four of them got up in a hurry. Cadman ordered Cartesi to notify the other teams in the town through his radio that they needed to be prepared. She then turned to Edwards, who had the successfully gone through the Ancient gene therapy only a few months ago, and told her to "get your ass to the Jumper and contact Atlantis."

If was after ordering some food that Kim and Kes heard chairs on the other side of the meal hall being pushed back. HE looked past Kes, who turned on her seat and looked over her shoulder, at the two women and two men in uniforms getting up to their feet and speaking in hushed tones. The saw one of them nod his head and take out his radio while a redhaired woman, Captain Edwards, rushed out the door as fast as possible.

Suddenly, the tricorder in Kim's vest started to gently vibrate. The young man put the device on silent; and so he reached it under his vest and took it out. He held it under the table, trying to keep it out of view from the patrons that had surrounded them. Opening the device, Kim's stared at the readings and then turned it off. He looked up at Kes with eyes wide open.

"Harry?" Kes whispered leaning forwards, "what's going on?"

"I'm reading a subspace signal and just now? There was a massive energy surge… it's… it's nothing I've seen before," Kimm whispered while Kes looked on confused.

"Didn't our scans show there were no advanced technology on this planet?" asked Kes.

"Yes," Kim whispered. And it got him thinking as to what was happening. It was then that he heard a soft beeping sound coming from the three-uniformed people. Unknown to him and Kes, and to the other townspeople, the beeping sound was a result of a device by Dr. Rodney Mackay, the head scientist in Atlantis. He created a device, with what he would insist had very minimal input from Dr. Zelenka, connected to the control crystals in the DHD.

The Device itself was contacted to a sensor relay, a small satellite, that was set up next to the DHD, scanning the heavens for Wraith ships. Then once the sensors detected Wraith ships in orbit following the detection of the Wraith specific hyperdrive frequency, it would send a signal to the AR teams while at the same time ordering the device connected to the control crystals in the DHD to dial the Stargate. It was all so that the Wraith didn't use the Stargate to block any form of escape; their Modus Operendi. The beeping meant that the sensors on the device detected Wraith ships entering orbit, particularly the hyperdrive frequency and that the device was dialling the Stargate before contacting Atlantis.

Cadman turned to Brewer and ordered him to stay with her and Cartesi before she looked up and yelled, "Ladies and Gentlemen!"

Everyone in the meal hall stopped what they were doing and stared at Cadman, including Kim and Kes. The two Voyager crew members looked at her, and then back at each other while wondering what was going on. They then turned back to Cadman and watched as two males wearing the same uniform rushed out towards the entrance while speaking in hushed tones on their radios. They rushed outside while Cadman continued, "we've received a signal that a hive ship entered orbit."

The entire Meal hall erupted in panic as people talked over each other in panic. Some were prepared to run out the door when Cadman yelled once again, "please, all of you have to stay here! We suspect that whatever ship is in orbit, Darts will be close behind. Their culling beams need line of sight. So stay within this building while our people informs the rest of the village to take precautions!"

Kes and Kim stared at each other while mouthing the same word to themselves in silence, "Wraith?" Kes, whose back was to Cadman, turned on her seat once again while Harry leaned to the side as Cadman and the rest of her team picked up their weapons while the owner of the meal hall and the waitresses were urging their customers to get up off their seats and then move to a corner of the building. Kes then turned and stared at Kim who got up off his seat and followed directions.

The two of them didn't know what they were in for before they could interfere. The truth was, Kim didn't know if they could interfere. At least not yet. The best he could do was move to a far corner of the building with Kes, and with his back to the others while Kes stared over his shoulder to inform him if anyone was looking. He then took out his communicator.

"Commander," Kim whispered he held his communicator in the palm of his hand which was placed close to his lips. To anyone else, it would have looked as if Kim was covering his mouth with his hand in worry. He hoped that his voice could get through given the murmurs of worried voices; some of panic, others of terror that were around them.

'They sound terrified,' Kes thought to herself while wondering what could cause such terror.

It was the same throughout the village. While Edwards entered the cloaked jumper, the lights in the ship turned on automatically after detecting the woman. Edwards then rushed to the control console and placed her hands onto the console with activated. She then sat down on the control chair as a holographic HUD activated, "starting pre-flight." While the scans were being run on the Jumper's systems, Edwards received a warning before the screen in front of her switched to showing about fifty red dots, Wraith Darts, heading for the town.

While the system showed Edwards that the Darts would take another three minutes to head to their location, she watched the group of Darts separate. One group was now heading for Prasene, while the others were heading towards the remaining two villages. She knew that there was nothing that could be done, the Jumper was only one ship which could most likely be a short-term deterrent until a ship could be sent to the planet.

In the meantime, while Edwards got the Jumper ready, the three doctors, including Dr. Keller, were urging everyone to get into buildings after they heard the warning about the coming Wraith over their radio's to prepare themselves. The other teams were getting ready by turning off their weapons' safeties, preparing to defend the town.

Back in the Meal Hall, following another beep, Cadman took out her radio and placed it close to her lips, "Major Cadman to Stargate Operations." It was before she could continue that everyone started to mumble loudly when the sounds of buzzing came from the distance. Cadman rushed out to the door, and looked up at the distant sky. She saw the purple tipple streaks coming towards the town and said on the radio, "We have darts and a Wraith ship in orbit. We need back-up, I repeat, we need back-up."

Over the sounds of people in the Meal Hall praying, and some crying, Kes and Kim stared at Cadman who had put the radio to her ear. He and Kes couldn't heard the response, but the male voice on the other end of the line said, "the Talon is being rerouted to your location, Major. ETA two minutes."

"Copy that," Cadman responded into her radio. She then turned and looked at the other Marines who had been taking a break before ordering them to take positions. "We have back-up coming in three minutes. Until then, we hold the line."

"How about the other towns?" yelled a middle-aged woman.

"We've moved all our people here after they administered the medication to those towns," Cadman said shaking her head, "I'm sorry. Until the Talon gets here, this place is the most heavily defended town on the planet."

"Then the people in those villages will be culled," said another man.

Kes and Kim looked on just as he received a message on his communicator from Chakotay. The man told Kim and Kes, while Cadman was on the radio after saying she had an idea. Chakotay said that he took cover in some tell grass five minutes away from town when he saw a few small fighters break off from the group heading towards the town, "there's a column of smoke coming from the direction of the shuttle." The man could indeed see a column of smoke rising before he took cover just as two fighter buzzed overhead.

"We overheard the people in uniform talking about something called the Wraith," said Kim when Chakotay heard a loud buzzing coming towards him. He could barely hear Kim when he looked up from his cover and saw two fighters racing to his location. Chakotay could only stare as the fighters were almost on top of him. Once they were almost onto him, Chakotay had a feeling of dread- with Kim's voice coming through the communicator seeming so distant- when he saw a blue energy beam emanating from the ventral section of the fighter coming for him.

And he gulped.

**Earth ship Talon, two minutes away from Prasene.**

It had been almost four years; four years since life on Earth changed. With the Superhive destroyed over Earth thanks to the distraction provided by Atlantis, the Ancient city literally fell down to Earth. It rested in the Bay of San Francisco for a year while cloaked, the IOA wanting to get their hands on the technology in the city. The nations comprising the IOA wanted to tear the city apart ever since it landed on Earth in late 2010, but Homeworld Command and the Atlantis Expedition led by General Jack O'Neill and Richard Woolsey respectively, refused.

They begged the President to intervene, especially since the Wraith threat in Pegasus was still ever-present, and the humans there needed Atlantis' protection. The President felt that the IOA was the best to judge what needed to be done, despite his own personal feelings that the city-ship should head back to Pegasus.

After nine months of distractions and politicking, while Mackay led the teams trying to repair the damaged Stardrive and doing their own work in the city, General O'Neill came up with an idea. He made the argument that since Atlantis was in American territorial waters, the IOA had no jurisdiction; the city would be taken over by the American military and the technology would belong to them. This caused outrage among the IOA, but they couldn't do anything to counter the General. Especially when President Hayes and Woolsey agreed with him.

Instead of having the city belong to the Americans, the IOA reluctantly agreed to allow the city to return to Pegasus. In exchange, the IOA would get more power in administering Atlantis while the military remained under the command of Homeworld. The agreement took a few more months to thrash out, but in the end… no one was happy.

"The perfect agreement," President Hayes told the Chair of the IOA, and to General O'Neill in the White House.

All in all, Atlantis was on Earth for a while year before the Stardrive was repaired, and the agreement was signed. At the end of the year, Woolsey and the Atlantis expedition said goodbye once more to Earth before taking off for Pegasus.

Since arriving in Pegasus once again, the Tau'ri-Human war restarted. Over the three years since they arrive in Pegasus, the Tau'ri were allied with three large Wraith Hive alliances, including with Todd's Alliance after he was returned home. For the first few months, the Tau'ri were on the backfoot. But thanks to the research being done in Atlantis while she was one Earth, the Expedition found a way to defeat the Wraith.

At least beat them back enough to offer them a peace treaty. It was a weapon that had several teams that developed it question the legality of what they had created, a weapon that created moral questions of genocide. Woolsey contacted the IOA and Homeworld Command to tell them of their findings.

While they were reluctant, the leaders of the IOA and General O'Neill agreed there was no other choice. The weapon had to be used against the Wraith. Unknown to the Tau'ri, it was the very same weapon that was being transported by the Aurora to Atlantis thousands of years ago.

In the very first engagement since the weapon was created, the Daedalus came up against two Hiveships. The Earth vessel launched the weapons; some were destroyed by the Darts as they intercepted the missiles. But the ones that exploded against the hull created a chain reaction throughout the two vessels as the Daedalus darted to a safe zone sixty light years away. The scanners on the Daedalus showed the two Hive ships develop tumours that eventually tore them apart over the next three minutes.

The later destruction of hundreds of Hive ships and cruisers forced the Wraith to negotiate a very truce. In a little under two years, the war was over… the threat of the Wraith was vastly reduced, and the peace was extremely fragile.

Back on Earth, it would be three years since the attack of the Superhive that the existence of extraterritorial life was made public. The world now knew about their spaceships, the developing colony on the moon, the planned colony on Mars. The internet nearly crashed as people were searching for news after what became known as Disclosure Day. And the world was still getting used to the new developments regarding the defeat of the System Lords and Jaffa freedom, the existence of the Lucien Alliance, the Ori and their defeat, among others.

One thing that wasn't shared with the world was the existence of the Stargate. The cover story being used was that an alien ship formed the basis of Earths new ships. An alien ship that crash landed in Alaska in the 1930's. Without the distraction of constant war in the Milky Way and Pegasus, the Tau'ri started to explore the galaxy.

And in Pegasus, exploration excluded those planets designated as Wraith 'properties' in the peace treaty. It was thanks to the research done on Atlantis after the war and while on Earth, as well as the research done on the Asgard Core in the Odyssey back on Earth, that the Valhalla class ships were developed.

The new vessels were named in honour of the Asgard who had committed mass suicide years earlier so that their technology would not fall into the hands of their enemies. They gifted humanity with the entirety of their knowledge, history, and technology before their deaths as thanks… and as a passing down of the torch to their successors. The Asgard were seen as guardians in the Milky Way, and the Tau'ri had taken up that responsibility. They watched over the Asgard Protected Planets, defending those worlds if the remaining Goa'uld or the Lucien Alliance attacked.

The Valhalla class ships were the latest off the line; with the Talon being only three months old before being assigned to Pegasus with the Daedalus. In addition, the new Daedalus class Prometheus, the Kelvin, the Kennedy, and the two other Valkyrie class vessels- the Europa, and the Vigilance were assigned to Pegasus. A combination of Tau'ri, Ancient, and Asgard technology in a five hundred and forty-five-meter-long ship, the Valhalla class Talon has been commanded by Colonel Amanda Hawking ever since her commissioning.

And she just received a subspace signal from Atlantis. The planet designated M7Y-635 was being attacked by Wraith. It was a planet only just outside Wraith territory. And with the peace between the Tau'ri and the Wraith so fragile, Colonel Hawking was afraid that this attack would mean an outbreak of war once again.

"How long?" she asked as she sat on her command chair.

"One and a half minutes, ma'am."

The hazel eyed, dark haired woman looked out the forward viewport and took in a deep breath. She then pressed a button on her chair, and was connected to the speakers throughout the ship, "All personnel, we are at condition red. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

TBC.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Bridge, Voyager, a minute earlier, just as the Hiveship entered orbit.**

Voyager was two minutes away at from the planet at full impulse. But even from their current location, Ensign Ayala called out for the Captain when the sensors detected a massive power surge. It was coming from the surface of the planet. Janeway stood up while the lights dimmed and red coloured accents were glowing around the bridge to indicate 'red alert'.

"What type of energy surge?" Janeway asked as Ayala looked back down on his console, and then back up to the Captain with surprise etched on his face.

"Unknown, Captain," Ayala responded, "but the energy release was massive. I have located the area and….' There was the sound of another beep on Tuvok's screen that interrupted what Ayala wanted to say- that sensors detected the location of the energy surge in a forest three kilometres away from one of the smaller villages. Instead, Tuvok interrupted him by saying that the beacon they had been receiving from the shuttlecraft was gone.

"Has it been destroyed?" asked the concerned Janeway whose heart started to race while turning around to Tuvok. Tuvok nodded his head, and Janeway averted her eyes for a few seconds before looking back at Tuvok, "how about their communicators?"

Tuvok looked back down at his screen and then back up once again before nodding his head, "yes, they are still active." Janeway breathed a sigh of relief, her away team was safe and sound, before turning back to Ayala. Janeway listened as the younger man, Ayala, relayed the information being spit out on the screen in front of him, "sensors can't make out the energy surge but… running detailed scans and…" Ayala's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the readings he was receiving on screen, "neutrinos? Quantum fluctuations? Theta-band radiation and ionised hydrogen?"

"Are you sure?" Janeway asked.

"Yes, Captain," the young man replied. By now, Tuvok and Paris turned towards Captain in stunned silence. All of them knew what the scan implied; somewhere on the planet was a possible wormhole.

"On screen," Janeway ordered as she turned around from Ayala and stared at the view screen, but not before ordering Paris to contact the Away team on their communicators. She reasoned that there was an attack coming, and she wanted them to be prepared. Just as Paris was about to tap the console in front of him to contact the Away team, the screen in front of them shifted from showing the planet Voyager was flying towards with all her shields and weapons prepared to fire, to showing a plot of grassy land surrounded by trees. The bridge crew stared in stunned silence at the ring-shaped object, and at what looked like a blue puddle of rippling water.

"What is that?" asked Janeway just before the 'puddle' vanished. And once it did, her eyes widened and then turned back to stare at Ayala before demanding to know what just happened. While Ayala was tapping at the console in front of him, Tuvok called to the Captain and then nodded back at the screen. Janeway turned around, with Ayala looking back up from his screen, and then back down once he began getting readings.

With an excited tone, Ayala said, "sensors are detecting an energy surge from a device close to the pedestal holding up the ring." He then looked up to see the symbols on the ring glow one after another before an unstable vortex shot outwards, and then settled back into a 'puddle'.

"Oh my God," Janeway whispered shaking her head.

"Sensors are detecting the exact same results as before, Captain," Ayala added.

"It's a wormhole," Janeway whispered while Voyager neared the Hiveship.

"Captain," Paris said as he looked at his console in confusion while he tapped various parts of the LCARS screen, "our outgoing communication protocols are being blocked."

"What?" a surprised Janeway said, "from where?"

"The alien ship," Paris said looking out the view screen, "they're jamming our subspace transmissions."

"Break through," the Captain ordered, "contact the Away team and warn them that fighters are heading their way." The Captain stared at the screen after Paris acknowledged the order.

She knew that there were Prime Directive protocols being broken once again. The planet was in a state of pre-industrial development, and so Voyager had no business in interfering. As Paris told Janeway that hailing frequencies were open, Janeway was still thinking to herself, 'by right I should just beam up the Away team, and then leave this area of space. But we have no idea where we are, and even if we did…. If we're somehow still in the Delta Quadrant against an unknown enemy… do we still leave the rest of the people down there to their fates.'

Janeway went over to her chair and sat down as she thought to herself.

'Protect them, or take our people and go. What do we do.. it would be so simple to leave them and save ourselves. But then again, we don't have warp capability… and… how could I forget? Damn it! How could I forget we don't have warp?' Janeway closed her eyes and shook her head. She had no choice. Intervene or not, Voyager was a sitting duck. Without warp drive, they were stuck here in this region of space, and the unknown ship could pick them off.

There was no choice. They would have to defend themselves when needed. But Janeway needed to ask the ship to leave these people alone. She believed there had to be another way; that there was no need for a fight.

"Hail them," Janeway ordered. And when Paris said that hailing frequencies were open, Janeway continued to speak, "this is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. We're here on a peaceful mission of exploration. I…."

"Captain," Tuvok said as he looked down at his console following a sharp 'beep', "we're being targets."

"I'm getting energy surges from the ports on the port section of the hull Captain," Ayala said, "we're detecting plasma energy build-up."

"Okay then," Janeway whispered. She then looked at Paris' back and ordered him to keep on trying to break through the jamming signal. "All hands," Janeway said after pressing a button in the console next to her chair, "battle stations."

**Planet Surface, a few seconds earlier.**

While Voyager was making her way to the planet and the Hiveship, Edwards just received new orders from Cadman. She was to fly the jumper at full speed to the other nearby villages and warn them that the Wraith were on the way so that people could take emergency precautions. Edwards reached for the console to her right side, the same console as the dialling device, and pressed a button to raise the rear ramp. She then acknowledged the order and placed both hands on the two control sticks in front of her. Once the rear ramp was raised and the entrance closed shut, the young woman mentally ordered the wings to extend while she pulled back on the controls. The cloaked ship rose quickly into the air as her HUD showed at least twenty Darts heading for the village. She then turned the controls, and thus turned the ship to port when she saw two Darts on her holographic HUD break off from the group heading for the village.

Edwards then saw an energy surge recorded on the HUD after the two Darts fire on an object in the distance, and the young woman zoomed in to see an explosion. Edwards didn't recognise the ship that was destroyed before she mentally switched the HUD to show the locations of the other Darts.

'They're getting close,' she thought to herself as she started to fly the cloaked Jumper when, suddenly, she saw two other Darts break off from the group approaching the village once again. She stared confused at the HUD while the ship flew forward when suddenly there was a blue blip on the screen; a blip that was coming from a section of tall grass near the trail that led to the town. "Crap," she whispered, "there's someone there." The jumper was running at speed towards the blip, unknown to Edwards she was heading for Chakotay who was hiding among the tall grass when he saw the distant explosion from the shuttle craft. IN the meantime, the two Dart shot towards him, one of them having already activated the culling beam.

From Chakotay's perspective, he could only stare at the blue and white beam emitting from the ventral section of one of the two fighters heading for him. He did not know what was going to happen, and he did not want to find out. Chakotay was prepared to roll to his left side, avoid the beam before trying to find cover when he saw a shimmer in the air from the corner of his left eye. Turning his head, time seemed to go slowly as a light brown cylindrical ship decloaked while firing a yellow object from the port side wing. He instinctively ducked just before the yellow dot smashed through one of the fighters, and then slammed into the second fighter which was only a second away from taking him.

Chakotay rolled away from the exploding debris while wondering what just happened. He could have sworn the yellow dot went through one ship and then continued on until it impacted another. It wasn't any photon torpedo Chakotay had ever seen. In fact, the ship that was now turning around while lowering a ramp was nothing he had ever seen before.

"Get in!" Chakotay heard the woman in the pilot's seat, a redhead who seemed to be in her early thirty's, leaned sideways on her seat while looking over her shoulders at him, yell. Glancing at the five fighters that broke off from the group heading for the same town where Kes and Kim were staying, Chakotay dashed into the ship through the rear entrance. Once he was inside, Chakotay quickly glanced about while the ramp closed and the ship took off straight into the air. And he felt nothing at all.

'The inertial dampeners, Earth has inertial dampening technology? This early?' thought Chakotay to himself as he rushed up to the cockpit where the holographic HUD was showing five ships chasing them. He then glanced at the pilot who twisted the controls upwards just as the ship slightly shook; the energy blasts from the Darts impacting the shield that surrounded the Jumper.

"Take a seat," Edwards said as she turned the ship to port. Chakotay sat down as the Jumper turned once again to starboard before pulling up and then accelerated forward- putting some distance between the five Darts and the Jumper. Chakotay watched the HUD, and then the pilot before he looked behind him at the rear compartment. He saw a few seats and cases adorned with the picture of a flying horse inside a triangle. He then saw a triangle with a small circle floating on top etched on one of the other cases. He then shifted his eyes back at Edwards who, by now, had gotten enough space and reached for a button on the center console. Unknown to Chakotay, the Darts were chasing nothing… they knew the Jumper was in front of them, or at least they thought it was, since the ship had cloaked after the first hit with the Dart's weapon.

The Darts' pilots believed that the Jumper would be heading for one of the other villages, and so they were heading for the nearest village as well. The very one that was about to be attacked, the very one that the Jumper was a minute away from. Chakotay glanced around in silence, his heart still racing at wondering what could have happened earlier, before staring at the woman for a second and then looking away. He then saw the woman press another button before she spoke an accent that reminded him of one of his classmates at the Academy.

"This is Lieutenant Kacy Edwards, everyone get back to your homes… take cover… the Wraith are here! Backup is on the way but all of you need to take cover! Move! move! Move!" The people in the village heard the loud voice echoing through the air from the external speakers of the Jumper. And people ran in all direction. There were a few who believed it was a prank, but upon hearing the 'buzz' sounds of the Darts, even they scrambled to find cover. However, it was the yell from Edwards that had the Darts following the Jumper lock onto a general area above them of them, and they fired.

It was at this time that the other Darts reached the village where Kes and Kim were taking cover. And a fierce battle began. While the invisible Jumper was manoeuvring out of the way of the Darts chasing it, and out of the way of the Darts heading for the village, the stunned Chakotay looked on as the Jumper passed several other Darts on the way to the third village. The ship moved at a high rate of speed while Chakotay turned to the young woman and demanded to know if there were heading back to help the villagers.

"I did what I could for now," Edwards admitted while the HUD showed they were three miles away from the other village, "this is only one ship with a limited arsenal, and… and I'm going to try and save as many people first. And that's by getting them to take cover from the culling beams."

"Culling?" asked a confused Chakotay while the Jumper neared the third village and passed the Darts that were about to attack it. Edwards glanced at Chakotay while wondering why he sounded so confused when she said 'culling beams'. But now wasn't the time to ask questions, she wanted to warn people to find cover, and only then could she even think about shooting down darts with the sixteen drones in the Jumper that were ready to fire. Edwards yelled the same warning once she was nearly overhead before breaking off to Port at the weapon fire coming from the Darts. As she took off skywards, Edwards glanced at Chakotay upon hearing the confusion in his voice. She took a mental note and then turned the ship to port.

She knew that the Stargate must have been deactivated by now and that Atlantis should have dialled back in to send reinforcements.

And then she heard Cadman's voice over the radio with weapons fire in the background, "we have Darts overhead, seven villagers culled, and we have three wounded from debris impact! Stargate Operations, we need reinforcements over here."

"AR-1, AR-2, and Rapid Response are being prepped to move as we speak," a male voice said over the radio, "the Talon should be in orbit in a minute. They have four squadrons of 302's and three Marine detachments on board."

"Someone better have Todd's ass over the coals for this, we're supposed to have a treaty!" yelled Cadman over the radio before she moved out of the cover of the doorway and fired at the Wraith soldiers that were firing on them after being beamed down from the Darts.

"Jumper One to Stargate Operations," said Edwards as she looked at the HUD and highlighted the two defenceless villages, "I'm setting Waypoints Alpha and Beta for F-302 air support, and Marine ground forces. There's darts swarming overhead and the towns need more air and ground support."

"Understood."

"I…." Edwards looked at the screen in front of her as it switched to the Hiveship in orbit, and then a reticle targeted another ship approaching the planet. Edwards frowned and then continued talking to Chuck, the senior technician at Stargate Operations on Atlantis, "Base, we have another ship coming in, and…."

"Voyager to Away Team," Janeway's voice interrupted Edward's report. Chakotay looked at the pilot while she turned her head and stared at him, and then at the HUD which showed an outline of Chakotay, and a red dot on the left side of his chest where the communicator was located on the inside of his vest. Edwards told Stargate Operation to standby as she flew the Jumper back towards the third town, the one she had just warned. Edwards looked out of the front viewport at the Darts that were strafing the small town while some had their culling beams activated. The Major decided to push the questions she had about the man sitting next to her aside as she decloaked the ship, concentrated, and then fired three Drones out of their launchers in the wing.

Some of the Darts started to fire on the Jumper, the ship receiving a glancing blow on its shields, just before it cloaked once again. While Chakotay answered the Captain, he watched the yellow missiles destroy one dart after another… as if they were being controlled somehow. He turned to look at Edwards while telling Janeway that he was in what looked like a shuttle, and were currently under fire.

"Not really," Edwards whispered as she launched the Jumper skywards and then looped behind the five Darts chasing her Jumper. Since the small ship was cloaked, the Darts had no idea that the ship completed a loop and was flying right behind them. At the same time, while the Darts were being targeted in the HUD, Janeway asked in a concerned voice why it was that he was visible to their sensors for a few seconds before vanishing. A surprised Chakotay stared at Edwards who decloaked and then fired two drones before cloaking and then pulling away while the drones flew through one Dart after another. "Still not enough drones for all the Darts," Edwards whispered while Janeway told Chakotay that Voyager had him on her sensors for a split second before vanishing.

"The ship is cloaked," whispered Edwards as she shot high up into the sky for several meters before turning around and flying as fast as possible, manoeuvring around the shots being fired blindly by the Darts that had seen the Jumper destroy their comrades. The other Darts were trying to cull the people in the town, and while most of them made it to safety, there were others who were taken by the beams. While Edwards flew over the town firing darts, in the larger town where Kim and Kes remained, Cadman and the other AR teams were taking fire from the Wraith soldiers and commanders who had been transported to the ground via the culling beams.

**The village of Prasene, at that same time.**

Their jobs were to smoke out the hiding humans into the open so that they could be culled. And unlike Edwards and Chakotay, the Earth officers firing away at the Wraith couldn't hear Kim and Kes speaking on their communicators of the sounds of gunfire.

"Captain," Kes said as she and Kim watched several of the Wraith fall to the ground dead as the bullet fired from the weapons penetrated the armour, and exploded once inside the body. "Captain, we have people here from Earth."

"What?" a stunned Janeway said as she turned to Tuvok, and then to Paris who looked back at her with an equally stunned expression on his face. "Are you sure? How can there be people from Earth when this is the early twenty-first century, and…."

"Captain," Chakotay interjected as he looked at a suspicious Edwards looking back at him, "I'm with one of the people from Earth. I'm in some kind of a cloaked ship and… well…"

"Temporal Prime Directive," Janeway rubbed her forehead. She was getting a headache.

"I would recommend we talk later, Captain," said the Commander as he looked away from Edwards, "three towns are being hit by fighters we've never encountered before. From what I can understand, there's a ship with reinforcements heading our way."

"Understood," a still surprised Janeway said, leaning back on her chair as Voyager got ever closer to the planet. Her mind was swimming with various questions that needed to be answered, and it was the same with Edwards. There were so many questions in her mind about the man next to her.

"Yeah, my superiors definitely would want to talk to you," she said before firing three more drones.

In the meantime, Kim reported on the ancient weapons being used, something that Edwards heard over Chakotay's communicator. She glanced at Chakotay who averted his eyes while hopeful that the woman wouldn't make the mental leap that they were from the future by Kim calling their weapons 'ancient'.

"Ancient but effective!" yelled Kim as Kes watched more of the pale skinned aliens fall dead in the alley outside. That was followed by another as the aliens took cover from the hail of bullets that were being fired at them. And that would be soon followed by the Earth officers taking cover from Wraith weapons fire… energy weapons. There were many questions in Kim and Kes' minds… none more so that the technological disadvantage of the Earth officers. How could they have managed interstellar travel without employing any energy weapons, like phasers?

"Very effective, and…. Ahhh!" yelled Kim as the wall next to him exploded inwards. He was pushed back to the floor, as were several other people… including Kes. She was knocked back to the rear of the Meal Hall where she was flung back behind the counter by another explosion that took out the second wall.

"Harry?!" exclaimed a concerned Janeway just as Tuvok looked up from his tactical screen.

"He.. he's injured, Captain," coughed Kes as she rushed to Kim and kneeled next to him. She looked up and saw the hole in the wall as three of the aliens walked in and growled. She saw one of them grab a groaning body, turned her over, and then slam its palm onto the woman's chest. "Oh… Oh no," Kes said over the communicator as she watched the body start to dry up, as did the two bodies that the aliens seemed to be draining. Kes looked around, her body quaking in fear at the sight of the bodies being drained, and saw some of the officers still firing out the door while the ones that were thrown to the floor by the explosion slowly got up to their feet as three more aliens walked in through the hole.

"Kes?" Chakotay said shaking his head, "Harry?"

"Kes?" the Captain said in worry, "Harry? Kes?"

"Their bodies are being... being desiccated," Kes said as her arms trembled while she reached under Kim's vest for his phaser. She saw the officers getting up and then turned back to the aliens, one of which was heading for her with a growl escaping his lips. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the officers recover and then start firing while she grabbed the phaser, raised it, and then fired. The weapon was on stun, and all it did was push the alien back slightly. It had a look of surprise at the beam pushed it back once again. Kes then widened her eyes in worry as the alien strode towards her.

"Get down!" yelled a male voice from Kes' right side. Ducking down, she closed her eyes and heard a 'boom' flowed by a sickening 'splat'. She looked up to see the alien that h ad been coming towards her crumple to the ground with the side of its head blown off. Kes' hands were shaking at the sight of the alien, and then she looked up to see more aliens coming towards the hole in the wall after being beamed down from the Darts. One of the men, the one who killed the Wraith, kneeled beside her and continued to fire while three others rushed past them and took over before firing out the hole.

"That ray gun work?" the man asked as he fired.

"It… it's on stun," Kes said nervously as she looked down at the control and then back up at the man while the Captain's voice was echoing in her ear asking if he and Kim were alright. Kes answered her by saying that she was a bit shaken, but alive.. as was Kim. Kes then looked up at the tanned man who asked if the 'ray gun' she was holding had a 'kill' setting.

"Yes," she answered as weapons fire continued to erupt around her, with some yelling out, "changing mags!"

"Well then," the officer said as Kes glanced at his name tag which said 'Paris', and a small smile appeared on her lips before she looked back up at the man's face, "you better set that to kill. We have more Wraith incoming until backup arrives."

Kes nodded her head and then looked down at the phaser in her hand. She raised the settings, just as Voyager's Paris had taught her several weeks ago, and then fired a beam of orange light at one of the aliens. The beam hit the armour, and the alien was pushed back. But another shot flung the alien back before it fell to the ground dead.

"Neat," said Paris, the officer next to Kes as she fired another beam while weapons fire continued all around her while Darts buzzed overhead.

**Voyager, at that same time.**

"The alien vessel is firing on us, Captain," Tuvok said as a worried Janeway looked back up at the screen in front of her. She wanted to beam up Kes, Chakotay, and Kim but that would mean lowering their shields. And that was something that would be too risky since Voyager would have to get closer to the planet, especially since rapid fired purple plasma blasts were heading towards them. Scans showed the Hiveship firing all her weapons at Voyager, "the ship is launching fighters towards us as well, Captain."

"Fire…" Janeway was flung to the floor before she could say anything. The weapons from the Hiveship were being fired at a rapid rate, the shields were taking the brunt of the impact from the plasma weapons. Others in the bridge, and the ship were knocked off balance while several others in the bridge… like Tuvok… did everything they could to maintain their footing by grabbing onto consoles. Over the din of the sounds of gun and phaser fire from Kim's location on the surface, Janeway looked up at the screen as several of Voyager's phaser blasts hit the Hiveship.

And then Voyager shook again.

"Fire torpedoes," Janeway exclaimed before she was pushed back to the floor after the shields took several more hits. The bridge seemed to groan as Janeway slowly got up to her feet and rushed for her chair while ordering Tuvok to fire the photon torpedoes once again, "unable to fire, Captain". While Janeway stared at Tuvok in stunned silence, it was at that same time that B'ellana in Engineering and several others had to take cover from showers of sparks that erupted from several consoles… one of which signalled that the shields were already at forty percent and the torpedo launchers were damaged.

"Captain!" yelled B'Ellana as she rushed, while slightly dazed, towards another console, "the Photon torpedo launchers are down. I'm…." There was the sound of an explosion from nearby… and it was at that time that the ship shook violently as the Hive ship's weapons impacted Voyager's shields despite the smaller ship trying to desperately manoeuvre from the blasts. Voyager avoided most of the bolts of plasma, but the ones that hit caused further damage to the ship.

And they were being fired at specific areas.

"They're targeting shield generators, engines, torpedo launchers, and phasers!" B'Ellana exclaimed before there was another explosion… and that caused one of the other engineers to yell out that plasma was leaking out into various sections on Decks five, seven and four.

"Transfer all auxiliary power, and the power for the torpedo launchers to the phasers and shields," Janeway said as Voyager's phaser arrays continued to fire, "seal all areas leaking plasma."

Suddenly, the din of weapons fire from Kim and Kes's communicators couldn't be heard over the communication system anymore. From her seat, Janeway turned to Tuvok who explained that the communications array was damaged. She then frowned and looked back at the screen while Voyager banked and then continued firing phasers, her ventral shields now taking damage while continuously firing phasers at the moving Hiveship. Janeway knew that the photon torpedoes would have made this battle much easier- it had been the deciding factor in the encounter with the ship they destroyed earlier.

"This ship must have scanned our defensive and offensive capabilities in our initial encounter with the…" Before Janeway could finish saying that the second ship must have scanned Voyager's offensive and defensive capabilities, Voyager shook violently- forcing Janeway and the rest of the bridge crew to be flung to the floor. At the same time, a second plasma burst penetrated the already weakened shields and impacted the hull. The ship lurched sideways as the hull exploded outwards, the blast lasting for a second before atmosphere and bodies were sucked out from the breach and into open space.

Another blast impacted the hull adjacent to the hallway that Seska and a team of engineers were rushing out to contain a plasma leak. The last thing she saw before the bright red flash of light, followed by a burning sensation, caused by the plasma bolt was the light in the hallway. She felt the ship violently shake when the first bolt hit the hull and with the second shot, the hallway she was running through was taken out. She felt pain wreak through her body which was spinning uncontrollably out into space as more small fighters, and three larger ships launched from the massive ship orbiting the planet below.

They joined the other fighters that were firing at Voyager with shield down to less than ten percent.

Seska thought to herself that she was having a really bad day. First, she and the crew found themselves lost thanks to Janeway, again. And then she pissed off B'Ellana and was sent to her quarters. Then, she was called back during the attack by the first ship, and then she was involved in the Engineering room during the second attack. And the second attack was much worse. She and a team, along with several other engineering teams, were sent to the plasma leaks to seal off the hallways by carrying handheld shield generators since the hallway emitters were damaged.

In the meantime, other teams were sent to retrieve any injured and send them to the infirmary. However, all that was inconsequential to her floating in space, the piece of debris that went through her leg causing blood to rush out into space as bright red spheres.

All Seska could do was curse Janeway as she closed her eyes. Her body was becoming colder and colder as seven more bodies floated alongside her. AS she spun, facing Voyager, she saw three more pulse blasts hit the ship, the first of that three shots shattering the shield, followed by atmosphere escaping and taking with it bodies… bodies that were still waving their arms in panic.

'That's what you get for trusting Janeway, we should have taken over the ship.. the Marquis should have taken over the ship and… what the..?'

Seska's body continued to spin and now stared out at the alien ship just as a blue hued breach opened up several hundred kilometres away.

"Captain," Tuvok said, green blood trickling down the side of his head while he pulled himself up to his station and stared at the screen. At the same time, Paris was groaning and grabbing the left side of his ribs as he slowly got up and limped to his seat behind the helm. As for Janeway and the others, they crawled back to their seat and positions behind each respective console, their bodies in pain and blood trickling down from cuts as sparks flew down from several overhead panels in the bridge. Once Janeway sat on her seat, she looked back at Tuvok and nodded her head as he said, "shuttle bay sensors have detected three alien vessels have landed. We're being boarded, and…."

"Captain?" Paris said while pointing at the screen as the ship shook once again. Everyone stared at the blue hued breach and took in a collective breath. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen next.

**The Talon, now.**

"… Four, Three, two…" said Lt. Jude Fowler who was sitting at the navigation console on the port side of the command chair, "and one."

"Shields up," Colonel Hawking said as she furrowed her eyebrows at the smaller ship being attacked by the Hiveship. The ship was doing everything it could to manoeuvre the blasts being fired at it, but it was still being damaged by weapons fire. As an invisible energy field wrapped around the Talon in an elliptical shape, the Hiveship turned its attention to the new vessel that arrived; the blue hued breach having closed behind it.

"Colonel, the unknown vessel has lost shields," the tactical officer, Lt Sabrina Andres, sitting on the starboard side console said while her head turned at the Colonel, and then back to her console. "It's losing structural integrity. It can't take another shot."

"Then let's keep the Hive's attention on us," the Colonel said before she was told that several Wraith had boarded the unknown vessel. "Beam them out of there and into space."

"We have other bodies, some of them alive floating in space," Lt. Fowler said, "and we've received a message from AR3 on the surface. We have Darts attacking the villages. We've been sent waypoint information by Captain Edwards on Jumper One." The Talon trembled from the Hive ship's weapons fire, but the shields were holding as they flared white. The Talon's first generation fusion engines pushed the vessel forward as it fired her railguns at the dorsal section of the Hiveship.

"Beam anyone alive floating out there, into the infirmary, and beam the Wraith out into space," the Colonel explained, "launch Red, Gold, Blue, and Silver wings… send them down to the planet to take down the darts." The Colonel was then told that the Darts attacking the smaller ship were changing trajectory and heading right for the Talon while more Darts were being launched from the Hive.

"Railguns to point defence and target the Darts. Fire the plasma beams at the Hive ship," Once the Colonel made the order, the rail guns targeted the fighters coming towards them, and were joined by lances of white plasma- the same weapons that were gifted to the Tau'ri by the Asgard, that penetrated the hive ship's hull. "How long for the particle beams to charge up?" The Colonel asked just as there was an explosion on the Hiveship's organic hull that lasted a second before Wraith bodies floated out into space. Then there was another plasma beam from the Talon that impacted the Hiveships hull, and then another, followed by another that penetrated the hull, and then exited through the ventral section. Explosions were erupting from all over the Hiveship as the Talon moved away.

"Colonel," Said another voice from the rear of the bridge, "sensors are detecting another three Hiveships coming to this location."

"The particle beam weapons have charged?" the Colonel asked.

"Ten more seconds," was the reply just as Lt. Andres said that three breaches were opening up. Three breaches then open to the port side of the Talon while Janeway was ordering all power be diverted to phaser arrays since he shield generators were knocked offline. She ordered the targeting of the first new ship that came through the first of three breaches. Followed by another ship, and then another.

Meanwhile, while Janeway was being told that Voyager was being targeted by one of the other ships, Colonel Hawking ordered a channel open to the Hiveships. Once she was told that a frequency was open, the woman spoke while the Hiveship that entered orbit earlier was breaking up in space, "this is Colonel Hawking of the Earth ship, Talon. This planet is under the protection of the Protected Planet's Treaty. The ship you see blowing itself up and breaking apart attacked this planet without provocation." The Colonel then leaned forward and continued to speak, "Atlantis will be contacting your leaders about this violation. Now, none of us want the war to restart again. So, I am asking your ships to turn back and…"

"Ma'am," said Lt. Fowler, "the hiveships have charged their weapons. One has targeted the smaller ship, and the other two have targeted us."

"Survivors have been beamed aboard," said one of the other crew from the rear of the Talon's bridge, referring to the people who were blown out into space from Voyager following the attack, "and the Wraith have been beamed out from the vessel and into space."

**Voyager, a few seconds ago.**

At that same time, on Voyager, teams of security personnel, at least those who were not injured, were planning to head out to the shuttle bay through the use of various Jeffries tubes that bypassed the damaged sections of the ships. They were certain that the intruders would find it difficult as well to move about the damaged ship- thus slowing them down enough for the security team to intercept them.

However, before just as they prepared to enter one of the Jefferies tubes after arming themselves with phase compression rifles, they were notified that the intruders were gone. Whatever sensors the ship still had operational showed energy surges enveloping the intruder's life signs.

"They were beamed out into space," an injured Ayala said as he stared at his console.

Janeway stared at Ayala in stunned silence before turning to Tuvok who said that one of the alien vessels were preparing to fire straight at the weakened Voyager.

"B'Ellana," Janeway said tapping on her communicator as Tuvok calmly said that the other two ships had already begun firing on the Talon, "please tell me you have some engineering magic up your sleeve?"

"I can give you one quarter impulse, and that's it. Our impulse drive took a bad hit during the last volley."

"Evasive manoeuvres, Tom," Janeway said as Voyager's engines hummed, pushing the ship past a few of the blasts that were fired at it. At the same time, the small ship fired her phasers at the alien vessel while Janeway sat back on her chair. Just as she sat down, Janeway looked out the main view screen and saw two green particle beams erupt from the weapons on the two 'wing' like protrusions at the aft section of the Talon.

The beams were similar to the ones that the Ancients had used for their Lagrangian point defence satellites, but it was reverse engineered by the Tau'ri for use in ship to ship combat. The development of a new power-core to power the weapons had been in development for the past two years, along with a way to ensure that the smaller version of the weapon delivered the same punch as its larger counterpart. It was a powerful weapon, the only downside being that it had to be charged after every shot for twenty seconds.

Janeway and the others on the Voyager bridge watched each of the two beams impale two of the Hiveships targeting the Talon. The two beams, each one tearing through the hulls of the Hiveships, exited out the dorsal section of each ship. As the two Hiveship's were exploding and breaking up, the Talon banked port and covered Voyager, the blasts of plasma from the remaining hiveship hitting the Talon's shields instead of Voyager's hull. At the same time, the Talon fired her plasma beams at the Hiveship. And after the third shot, the Hive ship was destroyed.

**The Talon, now.**

Colonel Hawking watched as the hiveship tore itself apart by the various explosions that erupted from within. It was just then that the pilots on the Talon were ready to launch, a good two minutes after the Talon arrived in the battle zone.

"Launch all fighters," the Colonel ordered as the Talon came about and stood several thousand meters away from Voyager's bow. The Colonel looked up at Voyager through the forward viewport and said, "send a subspace communique to Atlantis. The hiveship that attacked the planet has been destroyed. They were joined by three others from an unknown location in violation of the treaty. They were asked to leave, but refused. They have been destroyed as well."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Lt. Kagawa, one of the bridge crew, "message has been sent to Atlantis."

"Now then, hail the unknown vessel," Colonel Hawking said as she stared at Voyager.

TBC.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Jumper One.**

Chakotay watched with bated breath as the holographic HUD in the cloaked Jumper showed the Talon firing the particle weapons through the two Wraith ships that appeared out of Hyperspace. He stared as the ships were destroyed before turning to Edwards who was performing hit and run attacks, decloaking to fire weapons before cloaking immediately for cover, "What was…"

"I think my superiors will be able to answer your questions, Commander," Edwards said glancing over at him before looking at the HUD once again. And when she did, a smile appeared on her face just as she received a message.

"This is Red One to Jumper One," a male voice said as Chakotay stared at the HUD, which zoomed in close to a small black fighter which had something he had only read about, physical thrusters in the rear. He saw them activate after the fighters entered the planet's atmosphere while the Jumper was making its way towards them while staying cloaked.

To Chakotay the existence of thrusters was a novelty, and then he noticed the booster at the rear of the fighters they passed by before turning a hard one hundred and eighty degrees, 'the inertial dampening system on his ship is far more advanced than the one on Starfleet shuttle craft. I didn't feel that turn at all.' Clearing his head as the Jumper decloaked and Edwards started talking to someone named Major Klein, the pilot of the fighter designated Red One, Chakotay thought back to how the technology on the fighter was ancient. He then glanced at the sidearm on Edwards hip, and thought to himself that it was ancient as well, 'and a simple weapon when compared to a phaser.' He then glanced up at Edward's face as she spoke to Major Klein, 'they have ships that could be comparable to Starfleet's, with the weapons to match. But others parts of their technology are old. This is a unique situation we're in.'

Chakotay then looked out the front view port as the fighters were assigned one of the three towns to protect. They were soon joined by two more Jumpers carrying Marines from Atlantis, with one of the pilots telling Edwards that the third carrying "AR-1 is on the way to Prasane."

"Let's clear the skies for these folks," Major Klein said before the fighters separated, along with one Jumper.

"I have five remaining drones," Edwards said.

"Make 'em count, Captain," Klein said. "Red Wing, Blue Wing, Jumper One, attack."

One by One, Chakotay saw the enemy fighters – what Edwards and the others called Darts, fall like flies. The Drones from the Jumper, a weapon system that Chakotay knew he was unfamiliar with, tore apart several fighters while leaving the rest for the other black coloured fighters that Edwards called F-302's. Chakotay did feel several jolts when the Jumper was hit a few times – the ship losing its cloaking ability after the fourth hit, but he was unharmed. As was Edwards.

Eventually, Jumper One and the 302's finished their jobs while Jumper Three landed and out poured ground troops from the rear compartment to take on any Wraith that were still alive. In the end, a total of ten residents had been killed, with several injured, and another ten taken away through Wraith transport beams.

And all Chakotay could do was watch before turning to Edwards and telling her that there were two others, two of his crew who were situated in Prasane.

"The 302's are still taking out the Darts" Edwards said as she mentally switched the HUD to a top down view on what was happening over the skies of Prasane. She saw a Jumper land before telling Chakotay, "AR1 and the Marines have already landed. They'll be clearing the Wraith ground forces while the 302's take care of the Darts in the air. Maybe it's best if you contact your team through your comm system?"

Chakotay nodded his head before pressing the communications badge underneath his tunic.

"Chakotay to Kim," Chakotay narrowed his eyes when there was no answer.

"Chakotay to Kes," He breathed a sigh of relief when Kes answered, and was instantly worried again when she said that Kim was unconscious.

"There's a medical team in the town," Edwards said. But before she could finish speaking, a worried Chakotay pressed on his badge again and tried to contact Voyager, but he was getting no response. He wanted to beam Harry to the infirmary on board so that the Doctor could take a look at any injury Kim could have, and then heal him. But after getting no response after contacting Voyager, Chakotay guessed that the communications array on the ship must have been damaged. He then looked back at Edwards who reassured him that the doctors in the town were some of their best.

All Chakotay could do was nod his head; his face etched with worry.

**The Meal Hall.**

Kes tried not to be rattled by the sounds of gunfire erupting all around her while she fired one blast after another from the phase in her hand while her free hand lay on Kim's chest. The young man was still unconscious when Kes was startled by a roar that passed overhead. At the same time, there was another roar heading for them when suddenly, the alien the man called Paris called Wraith outside the building fired into the air. She, and the others, stopped firing when the Wraith very cut down by weapons fire from above.

"We have back-up," Cadman said as she looked out the window and into the sky.

"Sheppard to Cadman," the man known as Colonel Sheppard, the leader of AR1, said over the radio as Kes put away the phaser and placed both of her hands-on Kim's chest. "We'll be there in under a minute."

"Understood, sir," Cadman said as she and the others started to fire on some Wraith who were being driven their way by the F-302's buzzing overhead. It would be several seconds later that Kes saw the Jumper slam into three Wraith heading for the hole that led to the building, followed by the rear door opening and fifteen people in uniforms rushing out. They spread out into the town while four others followed behind. The four, Kes guessed, were in a group as they rushed into the building. Kes saw that they were wearing all the same uniforms, and carrying the same weapons. The only two who were different were a dark brown haired woman who had two rods on her back, and a muscular and tall man who had some kind of a weapon in a holster on his right hip.

"Major," Sheppard said walking over to her. Cadman nodded her head before giving him a quick report about what happened. In the meantime, Kes watched the woman look around while the man with the additional weapon rushed out of the building with another worried man.

"McKay?" Sheppard said when he heard the scientist say that he needed to check in on Dr. Keller.

"We have injured here," said the woman as she crouched down next to one of the patrons who was knocked on the head by a brick from the explosion that created the hole on the side of the building. The woman then went to another young woman lying on the ground, and then to another man- all the while feeling their pulse. She would look over her shoulder to say that medical assistance was needed.

"Rodney," Colonel Sheppard said turning to McKay. He knew that McKay was worried about his girlfriend, Dr. Keller. He had been ever since they heard about the attack on Prasane – and that was the only time he had seen McKay so insistent on hurrying to the Jumper Bay. "Radio Dr. Keller. Tell her we have wounded."

"Oh… yeah," McKay said shaking his head as he reached for his radio. While McKay was calling the doctor, the uniformed woman who came with Colonel Sheppard's group reached the unconscious Kim and Kes. She reached down and felt his pulse while smiling at Kes.

"He is alive," the woman said as Kes nodded her head. She noticed that the woman suddenly narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly before a smile appeared on her face. It was then that Kes reached up and felt her ears, the band she placed around her head to cover her ears had come off.

'Must have come off in the commotion after the explosion,' Kes thought as a tinge of worry travelled through her body.

"My name is Teyla Emmagen," the woman spoke gently while sensing the young woman's nervousness, "you and your friend are going to be alright." Teyla felt his pulse again while looking into the young woman's eyes. She noticed the pointed ears and folds that surrounded it out of the corner of her eyes, and it made the woman curious about which planet the young woman in front of her was from. Teyla then looked down at Kim and guessed that he was human, but she couldn't place the species of the young woman.

It was then she heard a voice coming from the unconscious body of the man lying on the floor. She saw Kes' eyes widen in worry before the latter leaned down and scrambled to move the tunic the man was wearing to one side. Kes then stopped when a man's voice was coming under her tunic. It was Commander Chakotay. Kes looked away from Teyla's questioning eyes and took out her communicator before telling him that Kim was unconscious. She listening as, after a few seconds, Chakotay asked Kes to stay with Kim… that he would be there as soon as possible.

Teyla glanced at Colonel Sheppard and Ronan who were near the far corner of the building, 'they must not have heard the conversation.' Teyla then shifted her eyes back to a nervous Kes who placed the communicator back behind the clothes she was wearing.

"I… I'm Kes," the young woman replied just as a blonde and three others rushed in carrying metallic cases.

"Jennifer," McKAy said as he rushed to the woman. He was about to hug her, but stopped when he realized where they were. Instead, he gave the blonde an awkward handshake… Kes glanced at the blonde who smirked at McKay before she looked around.

"Dr. Keller," Teyla raised her hand, "there are some injured there," and Teyla pointed out the injured before dropping her hand by her side before saying that Kim was injured as well. Dr. Keller nodded her head before ordering the town doctor, who was with her, to check on the injured.

Teyla then turned back to the worried Kes before saying, "he will be alright. Dr. Keller is our Chief Medical Officer, and one of the best doctors I know." Kes nodded her head at Teyla just as Dr. Keller rushed up to then and kneeled down next to the Agosian woman. The doctor glanced at Kes, noticing her eyes, before nodding her head and asking if she was hurt anywhere.

"No," Kes said before nodding down at Kim, "but he…"

Dr. Keller began a quick assessment on Kim before looking back up at Teyla and Kes, "he has a slight concussion. He'll wake up soon but he'll have one heck of a headache." Dr Keller looked up at the worried Kes and assured her that he was going to be alright, "I've already got people with broken bones back there. Compared to them, your friend's lucky. He'll be alright and…"

It was just then that Kim groaned while slowly moving his head from side to side.

"See," Dr. Keller said, "I'll check up on him after he's regained consciousness." She nodded at Kes, and then at Teyla before moving to another injured older man who was identified by the town doctor. As Kes leaned down and whispered to Kim that he was going to be alright, Teyla couldn't help but wonder where Kes and Kim came from. She knew they seemed to have some kind of advanced technology, and wondered why it was that Atlantis hadn't encountered her people during their war with the Wraith.

'And anyone technologically advanced enough to stand up to the Wraith would have already been destroyed,' Teyla thought to herself, 'so how….'

"Teyla?" Colonel Sheppard called out as he walked over with Ronan and Cadman by his side while McKay was helping Dr. Keller, "I see you made a new friend?"

"Is he going to be alright, Teyla?" Cadman asked as she looked at the groaning Harry who slowly opening his eyes.

"Yes, Dr. Keller said she would check up on him once he has regained consciousness," Teyla replied.

**Voyager, at that same time.**

"Captain," Paris said as he wiped a trail of blood from the left side of his head, an injury he received after the last jolt once plasma fire hit Voyager's unshielded hull. He turned around on his seat and said that they were being hailed, "on video and audio."

The Captain took a deep breath as her mind ran at light speed. She was about to speak to the captain of an Earth ship, an Earth interstellar vessel, in the early twenty first century. The Starfleet part of her was saying that she couldn't reveal anything about their future, but at the same time, they needed help to get back to their own time and universe. 'I'll tell them we're from the future of another reality, they should be able to understand that their reality and ours have diverged in significant ways. Our futures won't turn out the same.'

Janeway looked down at Paris, and nodded her head.

"On Screen, Mr. Paris."

"Aye," the man said turning around to his console and tapping on the surface. He then looked up at the screen, as did the others on the bridge, when they saw a woman with dark brown hair , hazel coloured eyes, who looked as if she was in her late thirties, looking back at them.

"I'm Colonel Amanda Hawking of the Earth ship Talon," she said nodding her head.

"Colonel," Janeway nodded her head while taking a step forward, "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager."

"The Federation?" the Colonel said with a curious look on her face, "Captain, we haven't heard of any organization in Pegasus called the Federation. Are you from around this sector of space, or….?"

"Pegasus?" Janeway asked, interrupting the Colonel, while Paris turned around in his seat. At the same time, Tuvok had his eyebrows arched upwards, and Ayala grabbed the sides of his console to keep himself steady, "Colonel, what do you mean by Pegasus?"

"I'm sorry," the Colonel shook her head, "I keep on thinking that the natives of this galaxy may have another name for it. I'm sure you have another name, but where we come from, we call this galaxy the Pegasus Galaxy. For instance…."

"The Pegasus galaxy?" Janeway stared at the Colonel with her mouth hanging down, "I…"

"Captain?" the Colonel said, her voice reflecting her concern as she watched the blood flush away from Janeway's face, "are you alright?"

"Colonel, when did… when did humans from Earth begin exploring the Pegasus galaxy," Janeway asked what was in the minds of the bridge crew who had been listening to conversation with bated breath. None of them could believe what they were hearing; Starfleet itself was still exploring the Alpha Quadrant, and here were humans from Earth exploring another galaxy.

"It's been a little over seven to eight years, with a break of a year in between," the Colonel said as her eyebrows narrowed.

"Colonel," Janeway said as her mind tried to wrap around what she was being told. There was a part of her that wanted proof that they were in another Galaxy. One part of her screamed out that being in another galaxy was the reason why their star charts were useless. But another part of her told her that it was impossible. That they couldn't have travelled millions of light years in only a few seconds. 'But then again, there were those ships that attacked us. Ships that were not in any Database in the computer.' Janeway needed answers.

And the only way she could get answers was to be truthful; to a certain extent. She resolved not to talk about the future.

So, she continued to speak, "this is going to sound unbelievable. We're from an area of the Milky Way known as the Delta Quadrant."

"Okay," the Colonel said, her voice trailing off while shaking her head. The Colonel was confused on how a ship from the Milky Way could have travelled through Hyperspace to Pegasus without knowing about it. And the other question was, how it was that another race other than the Ancients, the Asgard, and now the Tau'ri from Earth had inter-galactic hyperdrive. At the same time, she was thinking to herself that, from what she knew about the Goa'uld, the Federation would have been the first on the Goa'uld's list of threats, "so your ship somehow made it to Pegasus without you knowing how it happened?"

"We're from the future of an alternate universe," Janeway said as the Colonel frowned before asking if she had Janeway's permission to conduct a scan on Voyager.

"Believe me when I say that your story's the least surprising thing I've heard, Captain," the Colonel said while Janeway narrowed her eyes in surprise. That was the answer that Janeway had been least expecting, and so the redhead nodded her head. The Colonel then turned her head to the left and said, "Waters, run a scan on Voyager. And run a detailed scan of the area… fifty light years in all directions for any quantum readings that are out of place."

"Yes, ma'am," a female voice replied before the Colonel turned back to Captain Janeway.

"Captain," the Colonel continued, "we've retrieved some of your people from space. They're in our infirmary. I've been informed that there were many who were badly burnt, and we'll be healing them here before they are sent back to you. If that's alright."

"Yes," the Captain said.

"Do you need any medical teams on your end to help you?" the Colonel asked as she stared at a corner of the screen which showed the bridge of Voyager. A small square at the corner of the screen showed Voyager hanging in space with several damaged parts of the hull, and the hull breaches, highlighted in red.

"I'll have to speak with my Chief Medical officer," the Captain said before she put her hands together, "our communications array has been damaged, and I have my First Officer, my Operations officer, and one of my crew on the planet. They were there when the aliens attacked, could you locate them?"

"Of course," the Colonel replied before leaning in to the left as a young man whispered in her ear. The Colonel nodded her head before thanking the young man who dashed off. Colonel Hawking then turned to Captain Janeway and confirmed that their scans did show that Voyager had a different quantum frequency. Janeway then saw the Colonel take a deep breath, and her heart started pounding. But before she could ask anything, the Colonel spoke first, "Captain, our scans don't show any quantum fissure. There are signs that one did exist, but it's gone now."

"With all due respect, Colonel," Janeway said. She was in disbelief. The breach still had to be in the area. It just had to be. The Captain knew that if they could use the warp field, then the breach could be identified, and then Voyager would be able to use a deflector pulse to enlarge it and get back home. Janeway closed her eyes and shook her head. She then opened her eyes and stared at the Colonel, "I think I'd like to get our sensors back up, and then use them to identify the breach that brought us here."

"Captain," The Colonel said gently; she sensed how frustrated the woman must be feeling, 'I'd feel the same way too if I'm out of my universe and in another one.' She then continued, "I understand your suspicions about what I've just said. You are more than welcome to use your own sensor array to examine the space around us."

"Tuvok," Janeway turned around and whispered, "can B'Ellana give me minimum warp power. Just to extend the Warp field?"

"Power has been severely depleted, Captain," Tuvok said shaking his head, "Lt. Torres has transferred power to the structural integrity field, while the reserve power has been rerouted to life support and impulse engines."

"So, no warp?"

"I am afraid not, Captain," Tuvok replied. Janeway then turned to the screen where Colonel Hawking was talking to another man in a white coat. Janeway saw the serious look on the Colonel's face. She then nodded at the man who then rushed off, before the Colonel turned to Janeway.

"Captain, we do not have data on the races of some of the crew we beamed over," the Colonel said, "I don't know if your infirmary is overtaxed by any injuries on your end, but if we could get a biological database on…"

"One moment," Janeway interrupted before looking down at Paris and asking him to contact the Doctor. Once the Doctor was on a screen at a port side console, the Captain asked if he had space for more patients.

"The infirmary is full, Captain," the Doctor said. The Captain could see dozens of crew in the background, some were lying on the floor, and some on the bio-beds, "I need Mr. Paris here to assist."

"Tom, go," the Captain said nodding her head as Paris turned on his seat. He nodded his head and the hurried off before Janeway took in a deep breath. The Doctor was doing all he could in a bad situation, and now Janeway was being presented with help. "Doctor," Janeway said as she looked at the port screen, "I'm getting you some help."

"From where?" the Doctor asked.

"There will be a briefing of the senior staff as soon as we get back Ensign Kim, Kes, and Commander Chakotay," the Captain said before turning to the Colonel, "Colonel, if it's alright with you… your medical team would have to follow our protocols which I am sure the Doctor would be able to provide them."

"Understood," Colonel Hawking said.

"Tuvok, transmit the coordinates for transporter room one," Janeway said, "I want a security team travelling with our guests at all times." Tuvok then nodded his head, following which Janeway turned towards the Colonel and said it was one of their protocols.

"I'd have to do the same," Colonel Hawking said. Janeway then asked that the non-human injured crew members be sent back to Voyager so that the Doctor could take a look at them.

"Our Doctor is more familiar with their biology," Janeway said before turning to the Doctor and ordering him to be prepared for, and Janeway then turned back to the Colonel since she wasn't sure how many injured were non-humans.

"We have four in the infirmary," the Colonel confirmed.

"I can make room for four more, Captain," the doctor looked around the crowded infirmary, and then back at the screen.

"Please beam the patients over to the infirmary, Colonel," the Captain said while Tuvok organized an armed security team at the infirmary, and another one that was already rushing to Transporter Room One.

"Of course," the Colonel responded. "They'll be beamed over in three minutes. And I assure you they will be unarmed."

Janeway nodded her head before the both of them closed communications. Colonel Hawking turned to Lt. Andres and ordered to keep their transporters locked onto the medical staff, "beam them out immediately when they sound an alarm."

"Yes, ma'am," the young woman said.

"Fowler," the Colonel said as she walked towards the front viewport and stared out at the damaged Voyager, "contact Atlantis; tell them we have guests from another reality. And we need to find a way to get them back home."

TBC.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Transporter Room One, USS Voyager, three minutes later.**

It has been a little over twenty minutes since a medical team from the Talon was prepared to be beamed over to Voyager, where they were due to be met by a security team led by Tuvok. Once the Vulcan officer entered the transporter room on Voyager, he pressed his communications badge and informed the Captain, who was on the bridge, that he and his team were ready to receive the medical staff. It was then that Janeway sent a message to the Talon and before long, the doctor reported four of the non-human injured Voyager crew members who were in the Talon appearing in his infirmary.

And back in the transporter room, Tuvok and the others heard a screeching sound around then before a flash of light deposited four men in brown coveralls with a blue accent on the collar and down the top of the sleeves, and in front of them was a blonde-haired woman wearing blue coveralls with a white coloured collar and white accents on the sleeves. They were each carrying a metallic case that were, as Tuvok noticed before looking back up at the woman, adorned with the picture of a flying horse within a triangle.

"Welcome to Voyager," Tuvok said as the woman stepped forward after glancing at the other Voyager Security officers who had their phasers holstered in full view, "I am Tuvok, Voyager's chief of security." Tuvok then went on to introduce the other members of the security team, with the woman nodded at each of them with a smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Tuvok," the woman said as she glanced at the man's ears and then looked back to the other security personnel, and then back to Tuvok once again, "I'm Dr. Molly Regan, the Talon's chief medical officer." Dr. Regan then introduced the other members of her team before pointing down at the cases in her their hands, "you and your team are more than welcome to check the cases. They have no hidden weapons or anything." While she lifted the case in her hand, she then turned it and laid it down on her arm before opening the lid. "There's just some medications that your doctor may or may not need." Tuvok scanned the contents before nodding his head, signalling Dr. Regan to close the lid. She then pointed to the six inches tablet on her vest pocket before saying that it was a scanner to diagnose injuries.

"There's nothing dangerous about them, your men are more than welcome to scan the tablets."

Tuvok nodded at his security team who then proceeded to each of Dr. Megan's assistants. The four men handed the tablets over to the security personnel who ran a tricorder over the tablets, and then once they were clear, the tricorders were swept over their bodies.

"Mr. Tuvok?" one of the security officers said as all of the tricorders started to beep, including the one Tuvok was holding after he swept the device over Dr. Regan.

"Doctor, our scans show a device embedded within your forearm. It is sending out an encrypted subspace signal," Tuvok stated as he closed the tricorder and looked up at Dr. Regan.

"It's standard procedure for all members of the SGC and Homeworld Command to have subcutaneous transmitters," the Doctor said as she held up her left forearm and pointed at a specific spot, "it's sending the Talon our biological information, and it's used to track us if we ever go missing, it identifies us when we… you know… die, and it serves as an emergency beacon which signals the Talon to beam us away."

"I see," Tuvok said as he wondered if it would be best to have the implants disable while they were on the ship. However, he couldn't sense any deception from the doctor or her assistants. He then noticed the black objects that were stuck in the ears of the medical staff before pointing them out, "I take it those are communication devices?"

"Yes," said the doctor while the earpieces were scanned. Once finished, the security officer turned their heads to Tuvok and nodded their heads, signalling that the medical staff didn't have any weapons with them. Tuvok then nodded his head and led Dr. Regan and her team out of the transporter room and to the infirmary. On the way for the infirmary, Dr. Regan was informed that several crew who had minor injuries were being looked after in the Mess Hall while the others with more extensive wounds were in the infirmary.

"How many medical staff do you have on the ship," asked Dr. Regan turning her head towards Tuvok, and then back to the front while they were flanked by Voyager's security officers. And his response surprised the doctor. Dr Regan turned to him with her mouth hanging open in stunned silence as he calmly explained that the entire medical team was killed when they were forcibly taken to the Delta Quadrant of the Milky Way.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Dr. Regan said while her assistants looked at each other before one of them spoke up. And before Tuvok could mention the true nature of Voyager's Doctor, one of Dr. Regan's assistants spoke up with a question that was in the back of Dr. Regan's mind.

"Why hasn't this ship returned to Earth in your reality, I.. I mean you do have a faster than light engine, right?"

"For more than a year we have been on the way back to the Alpha Quadrant, and Earth," Tuvok said while they continued walking through the hallway, "however, we were pulled seventy-five thousand light years away from the Alpha Quadrant. By our estimates, it would take a little more than seventy five years to return home."

"Seventy-five years?" asked Dr Regan as she suddenly stopped and stared at the Vulcan in shock, as did the assistants. She couldn't imagine spending seventy-five years travelling in space from one section of the Milky Way to another. Dr Regan remembered hearing about Hyperspace when she first joined the Stargate Program and how surprised she was that she would be serving on a spaceship that could travel from one galaxy to another in the space of a week, 'and these people are saying they'll be spending seventy-five years?'

"But… but that means this will be a generational ship," one of the assistants said as Tuvok, standing with his hands behind him, nodded his head with a sense of calm about him. A calm that Dr Regan and the others didn't understand, to them, anyone would be devastated by the news. They glanced at the sadness on the faces of the security team when the travel time to Earth was mentioned, and then back at Tuvok who looked calm and collected. In fact, he was showing no emotions.

"We are hoping it will not come to that," Tuvok said, "in fact, our plan was to continue the Starfleet goal of exploration, and in exploring we hoped to find a faster way home to the Alpha Quadrant. I am certain Captain Janeway will bring this up with your superiors, but that breach your ship formed… we have not catalogued that type of subspace radiation, and…"

"I'm just a medical doctor, so I can't explain the physics or the mechanics of it," Dr. Regan said as the group started to walk once again. Dr. Regan's mind was in awe of the journey Voyager still had to go while at the same time hoping that they, the Tau'ri, could help in some way to help get them home, "what I do know is that we travel through a region of subspace called hyperspace."

"Subspace travel?" asked Tuvok, a hint of surprise in his voice while the Voyager security team looked at each other, "Starfleet has unsuccessfully experimented with trans-warp drives that would theoretically…"

"Like I said Mr. Tuvok," Dr Regan interrupted the Vulcan before giving him a warm smile, "I can't tell you how it works. But I'd suggest bringing it up if your Captain does talk with Colonel Hawking or her superiors." Dr Regan didn't know if she made the right call in telling them whatever she knew about Hyperspace travel, but she decided to leave out the fact that it took a little more than a week for the Talon to reach Lantea from Earth. She didn't want to give Tuvok and the others faint hope in the unlikely event that Homeworld Command and the SGC couldn't help them. Instead, she said, "I can tell you that Hyperspace travel is fast. Extremely fast."

"I will ask Captain Janeway to bring up this 'hyperspace' travel when she speaks with Colonel Hawking," Tuvok said just as they reached a door that slid open. And Dr. Regan opened her eyes at the number of injured in the infirmary. She and the others saw the injured and then their eyes settled to the man in the green uniform issuing orders to a man in a red coloured uniform before turning his head to Tuvok and the newcomers.

"Oh, my God," whispered Dr. Regan as the other assistants stared with mouths open in surprise.

"Doctor?" Tuvok said when he arched his eyebrow at the look of surprise on Dr Regan's face as the Doctor strode over with a frown on his face.

"I take it these are the medical team I was promised, Mr. Tuvok?" the Doctor asked Tuvok before looking at Dr. Regan.

"Dr. Regan, this is the Doctor, Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram," Tuvok said. Dr. Regan pulled herself out of her surprised state when one of the assistants behind her whispered, 'Doctor Who'. She looked back at him with a frown on her face, a look that made him wince back. Dr. Regan then turned her head and tried to push to the back of her mind how similar the Doctor looked to Richard Woolsey, the administrator in charge of Atlantis. It was then she realized what Tuvok just said. She looked at him in surprise before saying, "did you just say your Chief Medical Officer is a hologram?"

"A very capable Hologram with the entire Starfleet Medical database, including several medical and surgical techniques stored in my matrix," the Doctor said, "I…"

"Oh, this is so cool," Dr. Regan whispered as she looked up and down at the Doctor who raised his eyebrows at the comment.

'This doctor, or at least the man he was modelled on, could be Richard's doppelganger,' Dr. Regan thought. She then shook her head before saying in a professional voice, "where do you need us, Doctor?"

**Bridge, at that same time.**

In the meantime, while Dr. Regan and her staff started work, Captain Janeway was speaking to Colonel Hawking about Chakotay, her First Officer, disappearing and then reappearing before disappearing again. The Captain asked if the Colonel had any idea what was happening. The Colonel chuckled before telling Janeway that she was aware of where Chakotay was and would ask the pilot of the vessel to return to Prasene, "in the meantime, I have spoken to my superiors at home base, and…"

"Homebase? You mean Earth?" Janeway asked as she stood with her hands behind her back.

"We have a military-scientific base in Pegasus," the Colonel said referring to Atlantis, "and yes, my superiors have spoken to Homeworld Command on Earth."

'Homeworld Command,' the still surprised Janeway thought to herself, wondering if it could be this reality's predecessor to Starfleet Command while saying, "Colonel, have they said anything about helping us return to our own reality."

"We'll help you and your crew, Captain," the Colonel said. While Janeway was relieved – she looked back at Ayala and the other crew, who were also relieved. She also knew that their help wouldn't come without anything in return. Janeway looked back at the Colonel's face on the screen in front of her and asked the question she needed to ask; and one part of her was dreading what the answer would be.

It was at that time that Tuvok walked out of the infirmary. He had already ordered his men to stand guard in the infirmary while asking two others to accompany one of Dr. Regan's assistants to the Mess Hall so that he could help with the injured there. Once he finished issuing those orders, Tuvok pressed down on the communication badge on his uniform.

"Tuvok to Janeway."

Upon hearing Tuvok's voice over her communicator, the Captain asked Colonel Hawking to stand-by. The Colonel then nodded her head on0screen before Janeway turned her head to Ayala and asked him to mute the screen. "Yes, Tuvok," she said once the sound was muted so that the Colonel could not hear her.

"Captain, are you speaking with Colonel Hawking?"

"Yes," came the reply.

"Captain, in regards to the Chief Medical Officer the Talon sent us, Dr. Regan, she informed us that the unknown subspace radiation we detected was from a region of subspace they call Hyperspace."

"Subspace? Hyperspace?" Janeway asked as her heart started to beat faster.

"And Captain," said Tuvok as he walked into a Turbolift that would lead him directly to the Bridge, "Dr Regan has casually mentioned that Hyperspace travel is extremely fast. From her shock at learning our journey to Earth may well take seventy five years, I can posit that hyperspace travel could be faster than Warp."

"What?" Janeway asked, her face stunned as she stared at a concerned Colonel Hawking who wanted to ask if everything was alright. However, she could not since the sound was muted from Voyager's end. However, she didn't miss the look of stunned amazement from the officers in the background, behind Janeway, as they looked at each other and whispered before looking back at the Colonel, and then looking back at their own consoles. Back on Voyager, Janeway turned around and looked at the hopeful looks on Ayala and the other crew- all of them wanted to get home. And now they had a chance with an unknown technology. And that was just it, it was still an unknown technology. 'If.. if they can help us with this… this technology, that could shave off… oh dear God it could shave off years and…'

It was just then that the turbolift opened and Tuvok walked out and into the Bridge. He immediately sensed the atmosphere, which had become electric, as he walked down to Janeway, "Captain, if it is possible that Hyperspace…."

"If it is in anyway faster than Warp, we'll make it home from the location we were pulled away from in years… maybe twenty or ten… or better yet, maybe five years," said the Captain with hope in her voice. But then, she thought to herself, it was only a guess… she had no idea how fast hyperspace travel would be, 'it's just my hope… my hope that we reach home in five years. Hell, I'll take ten.'

"Captain… I…." Ayala stopped talking when Janeway and Tuvok turned to him, and immediately realized that he could have started to talk out of turn. But he knew, as did the rest of the bridge crew, that this was going to be a gamechanger if the Captain asked for help in providing Voyager with this new form of Faster than Light engine. However, Ayala just shook his head, "sorry, Captain."

Janeway looked at him and nodded her head. She then stared at the other members of the crew who looked back at her with hope etched on their faces. Janeway nodded at them, and then turned back to Colonel Hawking who was still looking at her in concern.

"Unmute," Janeway whispered as she turned to face the Colonel, "Colonel Hawking, I would like to apologize. Mr. Tuvok informed me that your medical team has been escorted to the infirmary."

"Good," the Colonel said, "you looked a bit worried there, and…"

"Colonel, there is something else," Janeway said interrupting Colonel Hawking who nodded her head. It was then then Janeway handed the conversation to Tuvok who mentioned what little Dr. Regan said about Hyperspace and how the journey between galaxies took a little more than a week. Colonel Hawking then nodded her head as Janeway then spoke, "Colonel, this ship was forcefully pulled into another part of the Milky Way. We have a very long way home… nearly seventy-five years and…"

"Seventy five years?" asked a surprised Colonel Hawking, "Captain, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of FTL are you using?"

"We call it Warp drive," Janeway said as she clasped her hands together, "the basic explanation of our FTL drive would be a warp field is generated which creates a subspace bubble around the ship. The bubble distorts the local spacetime continuum and allows us to go past speeds that exceed light speed."

"I can't say that I've heard of that technology, captain," the Colonel said, her voice showing that she was surprised while still mentally processing the fact that Voyager had seventy five years to go. But the question that was also running in her mind, as well as Janeway's mind, was that if Voyager could be returned to her reality… would she be returned to the same place where she entered the subspace tear, or in the alternate reality Pegasus. Either way, Colonel Hawking knew that there had to be a reason for how Voyager travelled to this reality; it simply needed to be investigated, and then they needed to find a way of getting them back.

And Colonel Hawking knew just the person who could start the investigation.

"Captain," Colonel Hawking said, "I'm sure you understand that there needs to be an investigation of how it is that you were able to come to this reality. We need to find a cause, and then hopefully recreate it, and find a way to send you back. As for the hyperdrive, that's not within my paygrade to give you an engine and…"

"I…"

"But my report will recommend that one be installed in your ship," the Colonel said as Janeway breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that the Colonel wouldn't be able to simply give her an engine, just as Janeway couldn't hand over a warp drive. They both needed to get the approvals of their superiors, and in Janeway's case- she had to make sure that the Prime Directive wasn't being violated.

'But this brings up another point,' Janeway thought as she heard whispers of joy behind her at the possibility of having a way to not only go back to their own reality, but a faster way back home as well, 'these people don't seem to have a Prime Directive, or do they? Maybe it's something else to bring up if we meet.' But Janeway also knew that their help may not come without any strings attached.

Janeway took a breath, and then asked, "Colonel, what do your superiors want in return?"

"That's something you would have to talk to them in person about, Captain," the Colonel said nodding her head. And Janeway understood that response.

Janeway brought her hands up over her chest and hung her head slightly, deep in thought. She knew that weapons were out of the question, and the way the Talon handled the three ships showed her that they wouldn't be interested in the weapons technology anyway, 'what the shields? Would those upend the balance of power in this galaxy. And what about the Milky Way? Then there's the issue with Voyager's structural damage. We need a place to set down and begin repairs.' The thoughts going through her head took seconds before the Captain looked up and said, "Colonel, maybe it would be best if we talked to your superiors. In the meantime, I'd like to extend an invitation to you to come aboard Voyager; I'll be briefing my senior staff in thirty minutes and I'd like to know more about the predicament we've found ourselves in."

"Actually, I've already received orders to escort your ship to our base," Colonel Hawking said, "once there, we'll arrange a meeting. I'll have my people begin calculations on towing your ship through hyperspace."

"Understood," the Captain said, "there's one more thing, Colonel. Our transporters are still being repaired thanks to the previous attack by the aliens. I'll be sending a shuttle craft to the surface to retrieve Voyager's away team."

The Colonel then nodded her head before saying that she'll inform the 302's, the fighter interceptors, that were still destroying a few more Darts, to escort the shuttle craft down to the surface.

"Thank you," the Captain said before turning to Tuvok and asked his to take an away team for a retrieval mission to the surface of the planet. After Tuvok nodded his head and left with Ayala, Janeway turned back to Colonel Hawking and said, "we'll be ready whenever you are, Colonel."

TBC.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**The Meal Hall, Planetside, now.**

Once Colonel Hawking finished talking to Janeway, she ordered the video screen shut down and then turned around to stare out at the damaged Voyager through the forward viewport in the bridge. The Colonel then walked over to her command chair, and leaned down to press a button on her armrest, "this is the Talon to Colonel Sheppard, do you copy?"

In the meantime, while Colonel Hawking and Janeway were having their chat, Colonel Sheppard continued to be briefed by Major Cadman while McKay was helping Dr. Keller with the injured. As for the other members of AR-1, Ronan was out in the village searching for any living Wraith with several other Marines and Airmen, and Sheppard glanced at Teyla who was talking to an attractive blonde who was helping her friend in a red uniform he hadn't recognize take a seat on a chair. The man looked dizzy with the blonde patting his back when he coughed. Colonel Sheppard then turned back to Major Cadman and asked about the young man and his companion.

"I don't know anything about them, Colonel," Cadman replied shaking her head, "I thought they were from another village, but that idea went out the window when I saw the girl fire some kind of beam weapon just after the Wraith decided to redecorate this place by blowing a hole in the wall." Cadman motioned at the still smoking hole caused by the earlier explosion.

"Beam weapon, huh?" the Colonel said glancing at the short haired girl. It was then that he noticed her ears- it was a feature he and the others hadn't seen before in any of the peoples they encountered in Pegasus. The Colonel then turned to Cadman and whispered, "well, I guess we should say hello."

"Yes, sir," she chuckled before the both of them made their way towards the girl and her companion.

"Teyla," the Colonel said nearing the group of three. Teyla, who was talking to Kes, turned and nodded at the Colonel who then jokingly asked if she had made some new friends. Teyla smirked at the man and arched her left eyebrow before introducing Kes and Kim. "Howdy, I'm Colonel John Sheppard," and then he made a motion towards Cadman, "and this is Major Laura Cadman." But before he could continue and ask them where Kes and Kim were from, the Colonel received a message from Colonel Hawking on the Talon.

"I copy, Colonel," replied Colonel Sheppard into his radio.

"Colonel, I need to tell you that we have another ship in orbit that arrived from an alternate reality." Colonel Sheppard looked at Teyla in surprise before turning his head towards an equally surprised Cadman while Colonel Hawking continued. At the same time, both Kes and Harry glanced at each other before turning towards Colonel Sheppard who was concentrating on the female voice from the radio on his shoulder, "the ship's been damaged, and we've received authorization from base to tow it to New Lantea."

"Okay?" the Colonel said on the radio.

"The captain of the ship didn't know where she was, John," Colonel Hawking said, much to the Colonel's, Teyla's, and Cadman's surprise. "She'll like to brief her crew about that. In the meantime, there's three people from her crew down there. I need you to…"

It was just then that Kes and Kim sheepishly raised their hands. Teyla stared at the two of them surprised, as did Cadman and Colonel Sheppard. The latter then interrupted Colonel Hawking, "I have two of them right here in front of me. "He then looked up and around at the several injured, "I don't see anyone else with this same uniform."

"He's their first officer, and he's on one of the Jumpers, most likely Jumper One," Colonel Hawking replied, "he should be one the way to your location. Their Chief of Security is on his way too. I'm guessing he'll be leaving in a few minutes. He's been ordered to bring the three of them back to their ship, Voyager."

"Okay," the Colonel nodded his head just as he noticed from the corner of his eyes, out the windows on the left side of the building, that a Jumper was landing, "I think Jumper One's here. Colonel, do they know about… you know… home base?"

"No," the Colonel said while Kim and Kes glanced at each other, each one of them wondering what was so secretive about the base the two Colonels were talking about, "I want Dr. McKay, you, and Teyla in the Jumper. You three will follow the shuttle back to Voyager. I need Dr. McKay to liaise with whoever is in charge of their Science or Engineering department… they need to have anything that can interfere with hyperspace travel deactivated."

"Okay," Colonel Sheppard said just as a tall man with a facial tattoo, in a similar uniform to the one that Kim was wearing, rushed in and darted directly for Kes, who nodded at the newcomer. While watching Chakotay place his hands on Kes' shoulders, Colonel Sheppard said, "I'm guessing the First Officer's here, Colonel."

"Copy that, Colonel Sheppard," Colonel Hawking replied as she put her hands on her hips and stared at Voyager. She then took in a deep breath before turning back towards one of the other bridge crewmen and whispered, "inform Atlantis that we'll be heading back with our guests in twenty minutes."

"Yes, ma'am," came the reply before the Colonel asked, "I need ETA to New Lantea."

"Three days, ma'am." Colonel Hawking nodded her head before taking a seat and then contacting the ship's medical officer. She inquired about the remaining Starfleet officers, and she was glad to know that they were going to be alright. The Colonel then had one of the bridge officers relay that information to Captain Janeway on Voyager.

**Voyager, Sickbay, thirty minutes later.**

The Doctor was working next to Dr. Regan while the others- Paris from Voyager, two nurses from Voyager, and the rest being doctors from the Talon, were seeing to the others patients. It had taken some time to understand the use of the medical equipment in the Sickbay, but the Talon crew managed to catch-on very quickly.

"So you've been online for about a year now?" Dr. Regan asked the holographic Doctor as she checked her tablet while aiming the sensors in the rear of the device towards the Starfleet officer lying on the biobed.

"On and off," the doctor replied while pressing a few buttons on the side of the bio-bed, before a device appeared from the edges and then wrapped around the injured officer. The Doctor then looked up at the impressed expression on Dr Regan's face as she examined the black curved device which had numerous lights flashing on its surface. Walking around the bed, the Doctor explained, that it was a scanner.

"We have something like this here… I mean back at home base."

"Home base as in Earth?" the doctor asked with a questioning look. Dr Regan then glanced at teh Doctor before looking away. She and the rest of the Talon's medical team were already briefed on the fact that Voyager was from the future of an alternate reality. However, she didn't know if the Doctor and the rest of the crew were aware that they were in Pegasus, 'Colonel Hawking mentioned the Captain and some of the bridge crew knew about their situation since they were on the bridge, but I'm not sure about the rest of the crew'. Dr Regan then decided it was best that she let Janeway reveal the truth. Instead, Dr Regan continued, "on Earth, we've only just revealed the existence of aliens. We've revealed some of the new technology we've developed- including leaps in medical technology including a bed just like this one."

"Interesting," the Doctor said. He was about to ask how Earth was doing in terms of eradication of diseases before Dr Regan felt the tablet vibrate in her hand. Dr Regan excused herself before looking back down at the tablet, and narrowed her eyes at the message she received from one of the other doctors from the Talon.

"You and the ship's Doctor needs to see this," the message read. Dr. Regan then glanced at the young man who was sweeping a tablet over a young woman with an injury on her leg healed. Dr Regan recognized the woman, she was one of the people who was floating in space. She had been beamed into the Talon infirmary with a thick, long, and sharp piece of debris that sliced through her leg- both flesh and bone. Dr Regan stared at the screen in front of her while it showed a genetic scan of the woman, and then compared it to another scan on the same screen to that of another young man from the same race.

Dr Regan pursed her lips to a thin line before she strode over to the Doctor who was looking over another patient. She wanted to keeps things as calm as possible so that the injured Starfleet officer didn't know that something was wrong.

"Doctor," Dr Regan said tapping his shoulder. She was still trying to get used to the fact that she was tapping her fingers on a holographic doctor. The Doctor turned to look at her after excusing himself from the slightly burned Starfleet officer, "I need to talk to you, in private." The Doctor narrowed his eyes at Dr Regan while trying to ascertain what it was that seemed so urgent judging from Dr Regan's heightened heart rate, something with the sickbay sensors were telling him. "It's very important." After Dr. Regan whispered, she handed the tablet to the Doctor, "whatever you do, don't look towards her."

"What are…" the Doctor stared at the tablet screen and the information displayed as his voice trailed off. Dr Regan saw that his face was now etched in worry before looking back up at her, "are you certain?"

"The tech hasn't failed yet," Dr Regan replied shaking her head.

The Doctor then whispered for Dr Regan to follow his to his office. And that's what she did, Dr Regan walked alongside him while discussing the fact that they still hadn't eradicated the flu on Earth in both their realities, "but we do have medication that cuts down of the symptoms to two days."

"I'd like to take a look at how you and your organization managed that," Dr Regan said, making sure that the others could hear them as she entered the Doctor's office. Seska glanced at the smiling doctor's assistant from the Talon who told her that her bone was healing nicely. She then glanced at the glass looking into the doctor's office and noticed that Dr Regan sat across from the Doctor.

'The surgical change to this Bajoran body is perfect,' Seska thought tuning out the young man who stood over her, 'if Starfleet Medical couldn't find anything wrong with me, then neither could these primitives.' Seska glanced at another young man from the Talon talking to Paris which the both of t hem attended to another young woman who was injured, 'doesn't matter what kind f technology they use, its ancient. They'll never find the truth.'

Back in the Doctor's office, he leaned forward on the table while Dr Regan's tablet lay across from him. He scowled looking down at the screen before he looked up and said, "with all due respect, doctor. This technology may not be as advanced as ours. There has to be a mistake. Lt. Seska has gone through a medical on Voyager when she joined the crew. If there was anything like what you've showed me, then I would have known about it and launched a thorough investigating."

"You've seen the anomalies at the base level," Dr Regan whispered motioning at the table, "it has no match with the young man who's supposed to be from her race. I know you see this technology as ancient, but this tech was built with a combination of human and knowledge base of two alien races. And the alien's I'm referring to were two of the oldest and most powerful."

"Even so," the Doctor said shaking his head, "I've already done every test imaginable on all the former Marquis crew. And I've never seen this, and…"

"Compare our findings with yours," Dr Regan said nodding at the tablet, "get a sample of her blood and run a test using the same parameters on the tablet. You'll see I'm right." The Doctor nodded his head.

And a few minutes after having drawn blood from not only Seska, but the other personnel who were beamed onto the Talon, the Doctor scowled at the screen. The visual on the screen compared the results from the genetic screening performed by the tablet to the one that was done by the Voyager computer. The Doctor then turned to looked at Dr Regan before tuning back to the screen in his office. He then tapped the badge on his chest and whispered, "Doctor to Tuvok."

"Doctor," Tuvok said upon entering the shuttlecraft meant to go down to the surface to pick up Chakotay and the others, "I am in…"

"You need to drop whatever you're doing," the Doctor whispered, interrupted the Vulcan, "I need a security team to sickbay. On Dr Regan's advice, I ran a genetic test on Ensign Seska."

"What is it, Doctor?" Tuvok asked wondering why Dr Regan advised a genetic test on Seska.

"She's not Bajoran," Tuvok turned to the security personnel behind him who were staring at him in surprise while the Doctor continued, "she had none of the base genetic markers common to the Bajorans on board. I ran more tests and… I don't know how, but there's evidence that proves Seska is a Cardassian."

"Halloway," Tuvok pointed at one of his security team, "go to the surface and retried Commander Chakotay, Ensign Kim, and Kes." The young man nodded his head at Tuvok after which the latter told the others to follow him to sickbay. "Doctor," Tuvok said as he exited the shuttlecraft, "I am on my way." Tuvok then contacted Janeway and asked her to meet outside the Sickbay doors.

While Tuvok walked into the hallway from the Shuttlebay, the pilot received permission to leave Voyager.

TBC.


	10. Chapter 10

**Voyager, now.**

"Computer, raise shields around bio-bed two."

Janeway stood with her arms crossed over her chest glaring at Seska who was glaring right back at her. The Captain stood with both Tuvok and the Doctor on either side while Seska remained behind a shield. It had been only twenty minutes before that Tuvok and his security team met the Captain, who had been notified by the Doctor of what happened with Seska, before they went into the infirmary. At the sight of the Captain, the officers who were able to still able to move attempted to get up as a sign of respect.

"At ease," the Captain waving her hands at them while the doors behind her closed shut. She looked at each injured crewmember and gave them a small smile and a nod of the head, even Seska- Janeway didn't want the Bajoran and alleged Cardassian to suspect anything. The Captain then followed the Doctor, Dr Regan, and Tuvok into the EMH's office while the rest of the Talon medical staff stayed out in the infirmary with Paris.

**Planet-side, at that same time.**

"Commander Chakotay," Chakotay introduced himself while shaking hands with Colonel Sheppard who had McKAy, Teyla, and Cadman by his side. In the meantime, Ronon was helping the other teams neutralize any other Wraith stragglers in the town. All the while Kim was seated while he occasionally glanced at Cadman who would look back at him. He would then look away, leaving Cadman with a smirk on her face before she turned her attention to Chakotay who shook her hand after being introduced by Colonel Sheppard. It was then Kes' turn to introduce herself before Harry nodded his head and introduced himself as well.

"So, you're from another reality?" Cadman asked with a quizzical look on her face as if she was asking for more details. It was something that surprised Kes, Chakotay, and Harry- the had the same thoughts going through their heads; that these people seemed unperturbed by people travelling from an alternate reality.

Of course, Chakotay was aware of rumours pertaining to something that Starfleet Command called the 'Mirror Universe'. It was something he heard about back in Starfleet Academy and during his last assignment before leaving for the Marquis. 'And I haven't experienced a Mirror Universe, and this doesn't seem to be one.'

"You don't seem surprised about us being from another reality," Kes said out loud what the three of them were thinking.

"We've gone through this before," Colonel Sheppard said shrugging his shoulders when he called the time and alternate reality Daedalus appeared over Atlantis. AR-1 went up to the ship to investigate, however they found out too late tat he ship was from another reality- and it was hopping from one reality to another uncontrollably. The Colonel shuddered to think what could have happened if McKay had reversed the effects of that Reality Drive.

"I guess you guys were just examining the place?" asked Cadman.

"Yes," Harry answered.

"Our sensors showed that this was a world not in our database," Chakotay added, "and Starfleet's mandate is the exploration of new worlds and civilizations." But Chakotay knew that wasn't the whole truth so he added, "we have a rule that explicitly tells us not to make first contact with the people of a world that hasn't achieved a certain period of technological achievement. We had to make contact here since we needed the lay of the land after discovering we were in an alternate reality."

"In case you could not return to your own," Teyla said.

"Exactly," Chakotay replied.

"Understandable," McKay muttered.

"Your people have no qualms about interfering in an under-developed culture?" Chakotay asked as he looked around at the uniforms that were checking on the people who were injured in the Meal Hall as well as outside in the village itself. He saw more flags of individual nations on Earth before turning back towards the Colonel, "there must be some rule of First Contact you follow?"

"I…"

"Forgive me," Chakotay said shaking his head interrupting Colonel Sheppard, "I didn't mean to have my words sound as rude as it may have sounded. I'm just surprised, as Ensign Kim and Kes are, that humans from Earth have managed to make it out into deep space this early."

"We're explorers," Colonel Sheppard said. He could see that Chakotay and Kim were about to say something, while Kes looked on, but he continued, "yes, we've met civilizations that are under-developed. We've met their leaders, we've gotten to know the people and their customs. If they're in danger, we help them. If they need medical aid, we help them. Are you saying that if you meet an under-developed civilization that's suffering from a disease, you would just walk away?"

Chakotay and the others simply stared at the Colonel who had a questioning look on his face. The Commander simply said, after a few seconds, "we couldn't interfere."

"That's not to say we haven't had problems of our own, problems and mistakes," the Colonel said while thinking about the war with the Wraith, at least until the treaty; and then there was the war with the Ori which began when Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran were accidentally transported to the Ancient's original home galaxy. And then there was the biggest misstep of the SGC in relation to Tegalus. "But we try to fix our mistakes."

"Doesn't mean we don't help those who need it," Cadman added.

"And anyway, the way we usually travel doesn't really allow for that," McKAy said standing next to the Colonel, listening the whole time while he tried to avoid staring at the blonde haired Kes, "yes, we send a probe through the Gate and ask the natives, if there are any close by, if they would like to meet. At least that's what we'd do if we were…."

"McKAy," Colonel Sheppard stopped him from saying anything else, especially about being in the Pegasus Galaxy or about Atlantis. "Remember what Hawking said over the radio? She wanted their CO to tell them about… you know… about everything that's going on?"

"Oh, right" McKAy sheepishly said turning around to the Starfleet personnel while Chakotay and the others stared at each other, "yeah, she also did say that Sheppard, Teyla, and I will be heading up to your ship."

"What were you about to say? And what was this Gate you referred to?" Chakotay asked curiosity plastered on his facial expression as he and Harry stared at McKAy. As for Kes, she sensed that the group in front of her were hiding something. It was then she glanced at the body that was covered in a white sheet being lifted up onto a stretcher. She remembered what the strange alien had done to the young man, 'he was desiccated before my eyes'. Kes turned back to Colonel Sheppard just as Chakotay was about to repeat his question.

"Who were those aliens that attacked this village?" Kes asked.

"They are called the Wraith," Teyla said, "and they have been feeding on humans for millennia."

"Excuse me?" Kim said while Chakotay stared confused, "what do you mean by feeding?"

"I… I saw one of them place a hand on the injured body of one of their people," Kes said looking back at Kim and then at Chakotay, "it was as if the alien, this Wraith, was… well… the injured man stared to get older. And older, and older until his body was shrivelled like a husk."

Kim and Chakotay stared at the Ocampa before turning their head towards Teyla and the others, looking for confirmation.

"The Wraith feed on the life energy of human beings," Teyla said, "they have been terrorizing… no… culling worlds every century or so."

"Culling?" Kes asked just as Voyager's shuttle craft flew over the town while escorted by two F-302's. The Colonel, Teyla, McKAy, and Cadman listened as a voice from the communicator that Chakotay attached to his vest spoke out, telling the Commander that the shuttle was landing. Kes nodded her head before saying, "I guess our transport is here."

"I guess that's the same one we're taking too, huh?" McKay said before taking a look down at his tablet, and then back up at the Commander, "does your ship have anything that emits a subspace signal?" Chakotay and Kim were about to answer when McKay waved them off and said, "never mind. Stupid question, of course you do."

Chakotay and the others stared at the Colonel who said, "he's a little intense sometimes. And he forgets his social skills" while the shuttlecraft landed outside the Meal Hall. The Colonel turned upon noticing the shuttlecraft from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head at the off-white coloured ship with red lines across its bow and body. "Nice," he whispered rushing out with McKay, Cadman, and Teyla. He then whispered while the rear door opened and McKay walked up to the nacelles and crouched down to peer at the blue glow.

"Commander," said the pilot as he walked out of the shuttlecraft, "I'm here to take you back to Voyager."

"We'll be in shortly, prepare for take-off," the Commander said before he turned to Kes and asked her to help Kim back into the shuttle. In the meantime, an excited McKay got up to his feet and asked about the shuttle's engines. Chakotay told McKAy that he would to need to talk to the Captain regarding giving out any information about their ship specifications.

"Well, that's what we'd do to," Colonel Sheppard said. However, he wasn't happy when Chakotay said that the three of them coming along in the shuttle couldn't bring their weapons.

"And I'm sure you would ask the same of us if the situation were reversed," Chakotay said. It was something that Colonel Sheppard knew was true, so he contacted Colonel Hawking on the Talon- and the latter informed Captain Janeway about the need for the officers to carry their weapons with them at all times. However, the Captain was also insistent that Colonel Sheppard, Teyla, and McKay not bring their weapons along.

"I assure you they would be safe and sound," Janeway had said while she was in the Doctor's office in Sickbay.

And so, AR-1 gave their weapons to the soldiers on the surface while McKay told Chakotay, "we already know that our ship will be towing your ship through hyperspace."

"Hyperspace?" Chakotay asked.

"Explanations later," McKAy said staring at the man, "we need everything from your communication system to your FTL drive, if it emits a subspace signal or field, to be deactivated in case it interferes with our hyperdrive system."

"I…." Chakotay was confused, 'what is he talking about? What's hyperdrive? A form of FTL?'

"We already agreed to surrender our weapons," Colonel Sheppard said, "and like you mentioned, you're in a region of space in another reality. You have a very little chance of going back home unless you listen to us."

"The form of FTL we use is disrupted by intense subspace fields," McKay re-iterated, "I need everything on your vessel shut down."

"I'll talk to the Captain and the chief engineer," Chakotay said before leading them back into the shuttle craft while Teyla radioed Ronon to tell him that they would meet him back at home base. While Ronon answered in the affirmative, Janeway informed Chakotay she was aware of the need to deactivate any emitting a subspace field. She ordered Chakotay to contact B'Ellana and have McKAy liaise with her on what needed to be shut down.

"We'll leave once you get back," Janeway said before the signal was cut and she returned to the Doctor, the PADD that revealed the truth about Seska in her hand. "are you certain of this? Doctor? Dr. Regan, are you two absolutely certain?"

"Yes," the two doctors said.

**Voyager, five minutes later.**

And when the Captain did come out of the Doctor's office few minutes later, she walked past the others with the Doctor and Tuvok while the remaining security personnel were sent to guard the infirmary entrance. Once they were close to a few inches away from Bio-bed Two, the one which Seska was occupying, the Doctor ordered a shield to be raised around the device.

As the orange energy field rose up, Seska stared at the Doctor and then at the Captain while thinking that it wasn't possible anyone knew she was a Cardassian. 'It's simply not. My transformation was so thorough that no one would know I'm a Cardassian.'

"Why, Seska?" the Captain asked as the other Starfleet officers in the infirmary, including Paris, stared in confusion at what was happening. "Why did you have yourself transformed into a Cardassian?"

"Captain, I don't know what you're talking about," Seska replied with an innocent but confused look on her face.

"Then would I be wrong in stating for a fact that you are indeed a Cardassian?" the Doctor asked. He stared at the momentary look of surprise on Seska's face, a look that last for a micro-second, a look that anyone else could have missed; except for one who had already programmed the bio-bed to search for any signs of deception from Seska before he and the others left his office. The Doctor glanced at the screen behind Seska and then walked towards it. He activated it while Seska eyed him suspiciously, saying, "Captain, again, I have no idea what you're talking about." Seska's head turned following the Doctor as he tapped the screen behind her. She saw it activate as it showed reading on her vitals.

The Doctor pointed at a few wavy lines that were present on the screen running from left to right. He then turned to the Captain staring at him, and nodded his head.

"You're lying," the Captain said glaring at Seska who glared back in return, "why were you with the Marquis. And no more lies."

Seska glared at the Captain, and then she turned her head towards the other officers staring at her direction. The ones were not unconscious whispered at each other while a few more looked away from her in disbelief after a few seconds. Seska yelled at the other officers, "I am not a Cardassian, I am…"

"You are," the Doctor said while Dr Regan who was walking towards them holding a tablet, turned it around and then showed Seska the results of their scans, as well as the blood taken to compare against the other Bajorans on Voyager. Seska stared at the scans on the screen while the Doctor described what she was seeing. It was a few seconds later that Seska looked up at Dr. Regan and the look of innocence and confusion fell- what was left was a smirking woman filled with rage as she propped herself up onto her elbows.

"You got lucky," Seska said staring at Dr Regan before turning to Janeway and the others, "I had to suffer being this thing I hate so that I could infiltrate the Marquis. My mission was to eventually hand them over to the Cardassians. That was why, Captain."

"Did Chakotay know?" Janeway asked in the hope that her first officer did not, before thinking to herself, 'of course he didn't know. He would never have worked with a Cardassian. Not willingly. He would rather die first."

"No," Seska growled before looking down at her injured leg, and then at Tuvok and the phaser in his hip holster. She then turned her head to the Captain and said, "I was so close. Then the Caretaker happened and we ended up in the Delta Quadrant. And then, you did the unforgivable. You destroyed our way home so that you could saves strangers… such a stupid human."

"Easy now," Paris said glaring at Seska as he walked over to the bed while the other Starfleet officers stared.

"And all of you are just as stupid to follow her," Seska growled at the other officers in the infirmary before turning to Janeway, "and now you, because of your stupidity, stranded us in another reality. Another REALITY!" Seska yelled enraged while Janeway didn't flinch once.

"I did what I had to do to protect the Ocampa," Janeway said taking a step forward with her arms crossed over her chest. "I will live with the consequences of that act for all time. As for now? Well, these people are going to help us get home. And when we do, you have a lot to answer for. I'm sure Starfleet Security will want to talk to you."

"I…." Seska growled before she was interrupted by Janeway.

"As Captain of this vessel," Janeway spoke in a low voice while glaring at Seska, "I strip you of all rank and privileges." Seska screamed more obscenities at Janeway while the latter continued to speak, "once your injury has been healed, you will be sent to the brig where you will spend the rest of our journey. Either in this reality, or back home in ours."

"We're here because of you!" Seska growled out at Janeway and then at the others, "and all of you still follow her. I pity all of you." Seska then glared back at Tuvok and then at Janeway before hissing, "we should have taken control of the ship. This should have been a Marquis vessel that…."

"Bridge to Janeway," Ayala interrupted what Seska was about to say by speaking over the communication badge, "Shuttle One is returning to Voyager."

"Understood," Janeway responded while glaring at Seska, "once the shuttle and our guests are on board, have them escorted to my ready room."

"Understood," Ayala answered while Seska was panting, her face turned red with rage glaring at the Starfleet officers, and then at Dr. Regan.

"Doctor, Dr Regan," Janeway said to the two of them, "please get back to what you were doing." The two of them nodded their heads before turning to Seska, "once you've healed, you're going to the brig." Turning to Tuvok, Janeway then said, "have security on her the entire time until she's in her new quarters."

"Understood," Tuvok said before a betrayed Janeway turned around while Seska was calling out for her. She walked towards the doors which slid open with a hiss before stopping. Janeway turned and glared at Seska, "if you told me that you were a Cardassian when you stepped onto this ship, then I would have…" Janeway sighed as she wondered what she really would have done but the more she thought about it, the more she didn't have an answer at that moment, "I… I don't know what I would have done to be honest with you. Maybe we would have been suspicious of you…. Maybe I'd have a security team on you and restricted your movements. But eventually, I know we could have trusted each other…. Because we would be forced to given our situation."

"You're weak, Captain," Seska growled shaking her head, "you would have still made the same stupid decisions and…"

"We won't know now, will we?" Janeway said shaking her head, "goodbye, Seska." Janeway then turned around and waiting for the door to slide open while Seska yelled more expletives at her. The Captain stepped into the hallway and made a left turn towards the turbo-lift that would bring her to the Bridge.

**The Talon, two minutes later.**

"Colonel Hawking, the Voyager shuttle has docked," Lt Andres said looking back over her shoulder at her commanding officer.

Hawking nodded her head before asking if the subcutaneous transmitters of Colonel Sheppard, Teyla, and McKAy- the three members of AR-1, were being detected, "I convinced them to leave their weapons after the Starfleet officers insisted. Keep a lock on them." The Colonels, both Hawking and Sheppard, were not happy about the latter's team being unarmed in an unknown situation. But the security officer who picked them up said that it was Tuvok's orders, and it was an order that Commander Chakotay backed, 'he said they would have nothing to worry about. Just like the medical staff.' "Well?"

"They're on scanners," Lt Andres said nodding her head, "on your order, they're ready to be beamed away."

"Contact Voyager," Hawking said before getting off her seat while thinking, 'I guess I'd have insisted on the same thing as well', and walking to the screen on her left side. The screen activated to show Janeway nodding her head, "Captain, I was told that our people on your shuttle just docked. Can you confirm?"

"Confirmed," Janeway replied.

"Okay," Hawking said, "I've just relayed to Colonel Sheppard that he has the go-ahead from our superiors to give you whatever information you need once we're in hyperspace."

"Understood," Janeway replied, "my chief engineer has already deactivated anything on our end that emits a subspace field. I've asked Commander Chakotay to escort them to my ready room for a quick briefing before meeting the rest of my senior staff."

Hawking nodded her head before giving the order to Lt. Andres to get the Talon into position.

"Ready, ma'am," Andres said as the Talon swept around and stopped just above Voyager.

"Captain Janeway, we're initiating the hyperspace bubble, now,"

"We've detected some kind of a subspace shell forming around Voyager, Captain," Ayala said.

"Engines are all deactivated, Captain," Paris, who returned to the bridge a minute ago, confirmed, "the defector dish has also been deactivated."

"We're confirmed on our end, Colonel," Janeway said.

"Hold onto your hats," Colonel Hawking said staring at the forward window, "open the window."

"Hyperdrive in three, two, one," Andres said before she pressed a button. Voyager shook slightly before the Talon pulled her along into a breach that opened up in space. Captain Janeway, and everyone on the Voyager bridge, and anywhere there was a window, stared out at the blue and white hyperspace tunnel that surrounded them.

"So this is hyperspace," Janeway whispered awestruck, 'how did they get this technology? And can Voyager be fitted with these engines?'

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Voyager.**

"Nice," an impressed Colonel Sheppard said before giving off a whistle while looking around the hanger bay. He stepped out of the shuttle craft staring at the dark greenish coloured walls around him before looking down at the markings on the cream coloured deck plating as he took one more step. He was soon followed by McKay and Teyla, both of whom were also looking around at their new surroundings. The three of them were soon followed by Chakotay, Kim, and Kes- and finally the Pilot just as a door on the far right hissed open and a dark-skinned man with what Colonel Sheppard could see were pointed ears walked towards them. He was accompanied by two people behind him in red shirts, with all of them armed.

'Some kind of weapon on their hip holsters,' thought the Colonel who felt a little uneasy without his weapons. However, he continued to remind himself of the assurances he and his team were given by Chakotay, as well as the fact that the Talon was tracking their subcutaneous transmitters, 'we'd be beamed out at the earliest sign of trouble.'

"Commander," the pointed eared man said looking over at Chakotay as he walked past Colonel Sheppard and the others, "welcome back on board."

"It's great to be back," Chakotay replied before turning to Kes, "please take Harry to the infirmary." Kes nodded her head before she helped Kim along, but not before welcoming Colonel Sheppard and the others to Voyager. The Colonel, Teyla, and McKay nodded their heads before watching Kes walk away with Kim. It was then that Chakotay introduced the members of the Atlantis Expedition by name and rank to the man introduced as Lt. Commander Tuvok. "He is Voyager's Chief of Security," Chakotay continued as they stayed in the hanger bay.

"Welcome to Voyager," Tuvok said. The Colonel noticed that the man, Tuvok, was standing as straight as a rod while he turned and spoke to them all. He also noticed that Tuvok's voice was void of emotion as he spoke, and that made the man wonder if the Vulcan was a robot.

"Nice ship," the Colonel said instead nodding his head as he looked away from Tuvok.

"Do you have many injured?" asked Teyla recalling the battle damage the crew had seen before docking in the hanger bay through the aft section of the ship.

"Our Doctor is being helped by the medical team from the Talon in the infirmary," the Vulcan replied before stating that the three of them needed to be scanned for any weapons.

"Commander, welcome back on board," Janeway's voice came over the communication badge on his chest while Teyla was asking Tuvok about how it was that Voyager made it to another reality. "We're glad to be back, Captain. It was a little exciting down on the surface." While the Commander was talking to the Captain, the two security personnel were scanning Colonel Sheppard, Teyla, and McKay for any weapons.

It was a few seconds later, after Chakotay said that they had met some friends on the surface, that Janeway ordered Chakotay to accompany the three newcomers and Tuvok to the briefing room for a meeting with the senior staff. It was after Chakotay finished acknowledging the order that one of the Tricorders beeped, and everyone turned to McKay who had his hands up saying that he was unarmed. The Security personnel looked at each other, and then at Tuvok who was about to ask him a question before McKay reached into his tip left vest pocket and pulled out a six-inch tablet.

"It's just a portable computer," he said, the beeps from the Tricorders interrupting Teyla's whispered talk with the Colonel about how it was that Voyager arrived in this reality. They turned towards McKay who held out the thin, six-inch tablet in his right hand before putting it back into his vest pocket.

Tuvok and Chakotay glanced at each other before the latter nodded his head. "Very well," the Vulcan replied sensing that there was no danger from the three humans in front of him. Once the scans were completed, Tuvok was told that Colonel Sheppard, Teyla, and McKay had the same subcutaneous transmitters and communication devices as the medical staff that arrived from the Talon.

Once the three Tau'ri were cleared by security, Chakotay and Tuvok, along with the two security personnel who were putting away their tricorders, escorted the three members of AR1 to the briefing room. In the meantime, Kes was walking through a corridor where the walls were scorched and various panels were removed, exposing the intricate electronics underneath. They walked by engineering personnel conducting repairs, the both of them nodding at those who noticed them as they walked past.

"The ship is badly damaged," Kim whispered while Kes was holding onto him before he used his free hand, the one not around Kes' shoulders, and rubbed his bandaged forehead. Kes simply nodded her head while recalling the view of the damaged Voyager form the shuttle craft several minutes ago. As they continued towards the infirmary, they passed even more damaged parts of the ship- and were eventually asked by the engineers working on fixing various leaks to take another route to the infirmary. Nodding her head, Kes then followed Kim's instructions so that they could get to the infirmary.

"There's another turbolift this way," Kim said pointing at another corridor.

It would be another five minutes later that the two of them got out of a turbolift and walked towards the familiar door that marked the infirmary. Once they entered the infirmary, both Kes and Kim were struck by the injuries caused by the attack before the Doctor asked for Kes' help, with Kim being handed to the Doctor to see to his concussion.

**Main Engineering.**

"B'Ellana," the Captain's voice called out through her commbadge, "I need you at the Briefing Room in ten minutes, we have guests from this reality on board. They will have some insight on our present predicament and you can speak to them about the hyperdrive."

"Understood, Captain," the Chief Engineer replied in a faraway voice as she stared at the screen which showed the blueish white hyperspace tunnel. Her eyes then shifted towards another screen which was spouting out readings on the region of subspace they were flying through, "I've never seen radiation like this before," she whispered before tapping the screen and then her eyebrows narrowed at the sight of the 'error' message flashing on the top right, "no readings on how fast we're going nor on what's protecting the ship from the radiation."

She then looked up at the near empty engineering room, since a majority of the engineers were all over the ship trying to repair the damage caused by the short battle a several minutes ago. B'Ellana then looked back down at the screen that showed off the hyperspace tunnel and shook her head, "how did these people get technology as advanced as this?" Mentally making a note to ask the Captain, who had told her earlier to disable all equipment that emitted a subspace signature-including the warp core-so that it did not interfere with the hyperdrive engines on the Talon.

"Well, I will get who whoever is being sent over," she told herself before turning towards some of the crew in the Engineering room and telling them that she was meeting the Captain in the briefing room before reminding them that the magnetic constrictors around the Warp Core still needed maintenance since they now had the time until reaching their destination.

Once her orders were acknowledged, B'Ellana walked towards the door to the massive three story room. As she reached the doorway, which hissed open, B'Ellana thought to herself, 'yes, I need to know how we can adapt this technology to the ship.' Walking out into the hallway, B'Ellana wondered about the power requirements that were needed back during the tests years ago to try and reach trans-warp speeds, 'those were failures. All of them, including the first Excelsior.'

Frowning as she calculated the power requirements while wondering at the same time if Voyager itself could handle those power requirements, B'Ellana broke into a run towards the Turbolift at the end of the hallway. 'We need to know what this technology is capable off, we need to know how fast we're going, and we need to know if Voyager can handle the power.' Taking in a shallow breathe, the Chief Engineer thought to herself, 'if this technology could be used then… then the Captain is correct.' B'Ellana recounted what the Captain said several minutes ago about the hyperdrive technology when she asked B'Ellana to deactivate anything that emitted a subspace signal, 'this technology could get us home much faster than just plain Warp Drive. Now the question is, how fast?'

**Briefing Room, twenty minutes later.**

Entering the bridge, B'Ellana turned to her left and walked past several of the consoles towards the Operations station manned by Ayala. It wasn't lost on her that the Tactical station behind her was manned by another crew member, or that another crewmember was sitting on the First Officer's chair. Walking down the stairs and then making another left turn, B'Ellana stopped at a door which hissed open a second later. Once it opened, she heard voices from the far left corner as she walked into the room- the door hissing closed behind her.

"B'Ellana," Captain Janeway called out and waved her over to where she was standing with Chakotay and Tuvok by her side. THE three of them were talking with two men and one woman wearing black uniforms and vests, along with empty holsters on their hips where she assumed weapons would have been stored. The Chief Engineer walked over, the three newcomers turned their heads towards her with surprise, 'they must never have seen a Klingon before.' And B'Ellana's thinking was partly confirmed when the woman she was introduced to as Teyla Emmagen asked about her homeworld.

"I think we can get to all that later," the man she was introduced to as Colonel Sheppard said. He turned to her and said, "trust me, these guys will have a lot of questions. But for right now, I think we should discuss the elephant in the room."

The group glanced at the hyperspace tunnel out the window and then turned around as the doors hissed opened once again with Kes and Harry, both of whom were excused by the Doctor since the situation in the Infirmary had started to become more manageable. They were soon followed by Kim who nodded at the Captain before turning towards AR-1.

"How are you feeling?" Teyla asked Kim.

"Better," was the reply before Teyla nodded her head and then turned towards McKay who was looking annoyed as he reached into his back pocket and took out a rectangular silver wrapper. He then unwrapped the top section before biting into the chocolate covered treat. "Sorry," he mumbled while staring at everyone looking back at him, "low sugar."

"Okay," the Colonel said turning away from McKay to the Captain, "maybe we should start this briefing?"

"I can get some refreshments from the Mess Hall, Captain," Neelix said as he sat down, "I'm sure that…" the Talaxian turned his head towards McKay who was loudly chewing the protein bar, "Dr. McKay would like some real food."

"Maybe later," the scientist replied. Neelix nodded his head as Kes sat next to him. He leaned in to whisper in her ear about the situation down on the planet earlier and asked if she was alright. Kes nodded her head with a smile while the others sat down around the table.

"All of you have met our guests from this reality and time period," Janeway said as Teyla, Colonel Sheppard, and McKay took their seats. Everyone nodded at the three of them before Janeway as the Colonel to take over.

"I'll just rip the bandage off so that we get the big painful stuff out of the way," the Colonel said as he looked at the Captain and then at the others, "I don't know what you all know about where we are and.."

"The Pegasus galaxy," Janeway said, much to the surprise of Chakotay, Neelix, and the others. Except for Tuvok. Janeway went on to say that she was already briefed on their location and was going to relay their current location during this meeting. The Colonel nodded his head before going on to speak again.

"That's one stunner that we have to go through," the Colonel said, "and then we have our hyperdrive technology," he nodded out the window, "and then we have our destination."

"I have so many questions about the hyperdrive," B'Ellana said while her mind was still coming to terms with the fact that they were in another galaxy, "how did you acquire this technology? How fast is it? And…"

"Rodney here can explain everything you need to know," Teyla said, "I am a native of Pegasus."

"So the Pegasus galaxy already has populated planets," Kes said in surprise as she stared at Teyla and then thought back to the planet they had been on several minutes ago. "What planet are you from?"

"New Athos," Teyla replied.

"And those aliens that attacked this ship?" Tuvok asked.

"A great evil known as the Wraith," Teyla answered.

"We'll tell you what we can now, but whatever proof you need to know about what we're about to tell you is in home base."

"So there is a home base in Pegasus?" Kim said, still in disbelief, "we're in Pegasus? Are you…."

"It's no joke," the Colonel said while McKay took another bite off the protein bar.

"And where is home base?" Neelix asked.

"Atlantis," McKay said after swallowing his bite. He looked up at the stunned expression in the Captain's face, an expression of disbelief while Chakotay narrowed his eyes at the Colonel who nodded his head. The other Starfleet officers were confused as to the meaning of the word 'Atlantis'.

"Yeah," the Colonel said, "better start over from the beginning."

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

"Better start from the beginning," Colonel Sheppard had said while the Starfleet personnel, at least those from Earth, where dumbfoundedly staring at AR-1. Tuvok and B'Ellana, the two aliens who studied at Starfleet Academy during their time at Earth had heard about Atlantis, and the two of them looked at each other with only B'Ellana showing some measure of surprise. However, Neelix and Kes, were the only ones with no idea why their fellow officers where so stunned at learning about their destination.

And it was Neelix who asked that particular question.

"In ancient Earth mythology," Chakotay, the archaeologist among them, spoke up while staring in surprise at AR-1, "it's a city that was supposedly inhabited by a technologically advanced civilization. One day, mysteriously, it vanished. The popular theory was that it disappeared beneath the ocean after a massive quake."

"I read that it was supposed to have been close to San Terini," B'Ellana added while Chakotay nodded.

"Well," Colonel Sheppard said leaning forward, "the stories are kind of true. Except for the whole San Tarini bit."

But before anyone could ask anymore questions, it was the Captain who spoke up… her voice relaying her disbelief, "Colonel, I suppose it would be best if you began from the beginning."

The Colonel nodded his head before telling the assembled group about the Alterrans who left their galaxy to flee the Ori. He told them the less detailed story; that the Alterra arrived at the Milky Way, they seeded Stargates throughout the galaxy for faster transportation of goods and people, and they built up an empire as well as collaborated with three other benevolent races to form the Alliance of Four Great Races. Then McKay stepped in and told them about the galactic plague, and the need to flee the galaxy for their own survival.

"So, they built a City-Ship and named it Atlantis," he said, and then stopped as the Starfleet officers stared at him. Neelix and Kes looked at each other in stunned silence while Tuvok stared at them with his arms resting on the table with his hands joined together in a steeple shape. The Captain, Kim, and Chakotay leaned back on their seats in contemplative silence. The silence remained for a few seconds while they sorted through the information they had been given before B'Ellana spoke.

"So, these Alterrans left for Pegasus to flee this plague?" the half Klingon woman asked.

"Our records show that trillions died," McKay said recalling the database of the dead that was discovered in Atlantis last year, "so the others had to leave before they died. And as far as we know, after they left, a weapon they built activated. It was designed to destroy any target to its component elements. So, they destroyed all life in the galaxy so that the plague could be eradicated."

Janeway and Chakotay glanced at each other silently, their minds trying to come to grips with what these people were saying.

Captain Janeway was leaned back on her chair as she rubbed her chin, her eyes drifting over the newcomers and then overs her own crew. She could see the stunned look on everyone but Tuvok – then again, she expected Tuvok to show little to now emotion.

'But still, a race of aliens using a weapon that could destroy all life in a galaxy,' Janeway thought, 'if a hostile race got hold of this technology,' Janeway tried not to shudder as she thought about what hostile races like the Borg could do if this particular piece of technology existed in their reality. Janeway turned her head towards Chakotay who had furrowed his eyebrows together, 'we have our own theories about how life spread throughout the galaxy, I wonder how similar the stories are with each other.' Janeway made a mental note to compare the theories of how life was seeded among the star in their own database with that of what they were being told by AR-1.

Without interrupting what Colonel Sheppard was telling them, the Voyager crew listened closely until it McKay told them that the Atlantis Expedition was formed to find the mystical city following an attack on Earth. The attack was centred on Antarctica, Janeway listened intently, but it was repealed.

Janeway glanced at her crew mindful of the fact that AR-1 didn't tell them how the attack was repelled that day. Just that it was, 'a powerful weapon that destroyed an entire fleet of ships'. Again, Janeway wondered what would happen if that particular weapon was capture by a hostile force, 'since Earth isn't united in this reality, judging by the individual flags on their sleeves, then there is the risk that hostile nations could take this weapon for themselves.' Janeway then, while Colonel Sheppard was talking about their first year in Atlantis, thought, 'but then again they are still here. Earth hasn't fallen thanks to internal struggles over alien technology and the existence of alien life.'

"Do they know?" Janeway asked staring at Colonel Sheppard, "do the people of Earth know about the Stargate? About what's out there?"

"Not yet," the Colonel said resting his arms on the table, "the President will be addressing a joint assembly of the United Nations in six months. That's when everyone will know the truth."

"That's going to be a surprise," Chakotay said as he recalled his Earth's history.

"Actually, I know I should ask Woolsey about this but it would be great to know how you guys did your own Disclosure Day," Colonel Sheppard asked sheepishly. He could see that the Captain was about to say something, but he spoke first instead, "we've already had someone from another team travel accidentally to an alternate reality."

"Another reality?" Tuvok asked.

"Accidentally?" Neelix leaned forward with confusion on his face.

"How do you accidentally travel to another reality?" Kim asked while Kes stared at the Colonel, Teyla, and then McKay who was still eating his protein bar; they looked as if this was simply just another day on the job. Kes, and the others, listened as the Colonel explained Colonel Samantha Carter's jaunt to an alternate reality where the Stargate Program was revealed… but that led to a dictatorial type of government in the US and several other nations.

"And I read about the time when there were alternate reality versions of SG-1 that came through the Stargate."

"Excuse me?" Paris asked with his left eyebrow arched up.

"I think… yeah… about twenty teams from different realities," Colonel Sheppard said, "that's my favourite report to read. Anyway, the good thing is that we got them home."

"What we're trying to say," Teyla interrupted, "is that we'll do everything we can to send you back home to your reality."

Janeway didn't know what to think as she leaned back on her seat. They were stuck in another reality, and these people were talking about alternate realities as if it was nothing. Shaking her head, she pushed back her thought about Atlantis and the attitude about the three of them before speaking once again, "Colonel Sheppard, what can you tell us about this hyperspace tunnel? Colonel Hawking mentioned something about asking your superiors if they could give us an engine. I was hoping you could tell us more about…" the Captain nodded her head backwards towards the window behind her, "hyperspace."

"That's what I would like to know as well," B'Ellana said leaning forward, placing her arms on the table, "how much power is needed to achieve hyperspace flight? How fast does it go? And…"

"I'll have to stop you there," chuckled the Colonel as he raised both hands, "I'm not the sciency one on our team." He then nodded towards McKay who just finished eating the protein bar, "he's the head scientist on Atlantis, he can give you the technical details. But what I can tell you is that this is a different region of subspace, and the Talon wasn't towing Voyager, then we would be over Atlantis in about four to five hours."

"I see," Janeway whispered while the Starfleet officers mumbled to each other. She glanced at the surprise on Chakotay's face, Paris and Kim were leaning towards B'Ellana who were whispering at them with eyes wide open in surprise, and Neelix and Kes were staring at AR-1 silently."

But before anyone had any follow-up questions, the Colonel then added, "this ship can travel between Atlantis and Earth in anywhere between 5 days to a week."

"Excuse me?" Janeway said in disbelief, 'can't be that fast. Warp from Pegasus to the Milky Way would take… more time than I could even think about without getting sick.'

"And once the Gate bridge is reopened," McKay added, "the travel time can be cut down to an hour."

Janeway and Chakotay stared at each other, both in disbelief at what they heard. In the meantime, B'Ellana leaned back on her seat with eyes wide open in stunned silence. All the mumbling stopped. It was suddenly very quiet in the Briefing Room – even Kim and Paris shut up while staring at McKAy, while Tuvok raised an eyebrow. He and the Captain already heard from Colonel Hawking and the medical staff sent from the Talon that Hyperspace was fast, but they never realized how fast.

'Then it can be inferred the power requirements for hyperspeed are enormous,' the Vulcan thought to himself as he stared at his fingers pressed against each other into a steeple, 'so what power source are they using?'

Before Tuvok can ask anything, it was the stunned B'Ellana who spoke up first.

"How… how long would it take to travel seventy-five thousand light years?"

"At full power?" McKay asked, "or at cruising speed?"

"Both," B'Ellana said.

"One to three hours depending on how much you push the engines," McKay said.

"That… that means we can be home in hours instead of years," Kim whispered.

"Years?" Teyla narrowed her eyes at him, as did the others from AR-1. Teyla then looked back at Janeway, and then at the other Voyager crew before turning back towards the Captain, "Captain, how long have you and your crew been travelling?"

"For a year," Janeway said, "and, like the Ensign said, we have another seventy-five years before we can reach home."

"Wow," the Colonel leaned back in surprise and disbelief, "I'm sorry to hear that." Colonel Sheppard couldn't imagine being stuck on a ship traveling for even ten years to get to another point in space, 'and these guys have to travel for seventy-five years. Damn, Woolsey… you better find a way to help them.'

"What FTL technology do you use?" McKAy asked while Teyla stared at Paris, and then as Neelix and Kes in surprise.

"Warp drive," B'Ellana said before describing the technical aspects to McKay who then shook his head before frowning.

"That's really slow," the man said shaking his head before he took out his tablet while the Colonel asked him to work with B'Ellana to check on technological compatibility. The Colonel then turned to the Captain sheepishly.

He realized that he had just given what would sound like an order on someone else's ship, "sorry Captain. I didn't mean to step on your toes."

"I was actually going to suggest that my Chief Engineer and your Head Scientist work together," the Captain said before turning towards B'Ellana, "whatever he needs, B'Ellana."

"I'll also need to check your sensor logs," McKay said, "there may be something there that can tell us how and why this ship arrived in this reality."

The Captain and Colonel nodded their heads.

"In the meantime, I'd like to talk to Miss Emmagen and Colonel Sheppard in my Ready Room," the Captain said, "Mr Tuck and Commander Chakotay, I would like for the both of you to join us." She then turned towards the others and said, "everyone else, back to you stations."

"Aye, Captain," Kim and Harry said.

"Captain, I would like to prepare something special for our guests," Neelix said, "I believe we have several Earth dishes in the replicator database, and…"

"Replicators?" asked the Colonel, "you use…"

"Devices that use raw materials to create food store within a database," the Captain said, "not those machine bugs you were talking about earlier, Colonel."

"Any food?" McKay spoke.

"Oh anything," Neelix nodded his head excitedly.

"Surprise us, Neelix," the Captain said before she stood up, followed by the others. "Dismissed."

**Atlantis. At that very moment.**

Woolsey had just finished sending his report to Homeworld Command about Voyager, the mysterious circumstances around their arrival to this reality, the attack by rogue Wraith, and the fact that Voyager was being towed to Atlantis. He also informed the Director of Homeworld Command about the request made by Captain Janeway for Voyager to be installed with a hyperdrive so that they could make it home faster.

As he walked back to his glass-walled office, Woolsey couldn't imagine spending seventy five years on a ship without seeing Earth, 'I supposed we've been spoiled by the existence of the Stargate and the latest generation hyperdrive.' He hoper that Homeworld Command would approve the request, and he was expecting an answer by tomorrow.

Entering his office, Woolsey walked around his desk and then sat down on his high-backed chair. He then leaned forward and picked up a tablet containing all departmental reports. He was going to skim through it before the meeting with all Heads of Departments in an hour. Once he finished reading the first three lines of text, he niticed movement in front of him. Woolsey looked up and was perplexed to see a look of worry etched on the face of McKay's deputy, Dr. Zalenka.

Instead of watching the man knock on the door, Woolsey waved him in. Leaning back as the scientist opened the door, Woolsey asked if there was something the matter.

"There was a situation in the Ancient laboratory on '673," Zalenka said. Woolsey furrowed his eyebrows, his face reflect the worry on Zalenka's, as he reached for the tablet being offered to him. It was only three months ago that McKay discovered a lab in the Ancient Database that was used for power generation. With hope that they would find what they hoped the lab contained, a team was sent to M7U-673.

And while they didn't find what they were hoping for, which were fully powered ZPM's; they did find something better. It was a lab where the Ancients would create their ZPMs.

"As you can see," Zalenka pointed at the tablet while Woolsey was reading the text on the screen and trying to understand what it was saying, "the lab experienced a major power fluctuation." Woolsey checked the time code for the fluctuation and he felt his blood rush away from his face; it was about the same time that Colonel Hawking claimed Voyager appeared in this reality – at least that was the information she relayed from Captain Janeway. Woolsey then looked up as Zalenka, missing the shock on his face, continued talking about how the team only just managed to bring the lab online and had had sent the results of their diagnostics.

"Several control crystals were destroyed and several circuits were burned out," Zalenka continued as Woolsey read the report, "it'll take us approximately a month to finish repairs and then we can begin creating our first ZPM… the first one in over ten thousand years."

"Dr. Zalenka," Woolsey said shaking his head as he put the tablet down on the table. He liked what he just heard, he knew the Earth and her fleet needed the ZPM's for power generation, but there was something else eating away at his gut, "explain, in layman's terms, how a ZPM is charged?"

"The device extracts energy from hundreds and thousands of different realities," Zalenka went on, "this presents the build up exotic particles… which would happen if the device extracted energy from only one reality at random."

"Okay?" Woolsey nodded his head before Zalenka went on to explain that the device also creates the ZPM's, and that the energy is used to create an artificial region of subspace-time within the ZPM casing, "and vacuum energy is extract from that subspace-time until it reaches maximum entropy."

"And during this extraction of energy from other realities, is there a way to…." Woolsey shrugged while he went on, "pull a ship from another reality into this one?"

"Huh?" Zalenka asked confused. "Mr. Woolsey, what are you… wait… a ship appeared here from another reality?"

"About the time the lab detected the fluctuation, a ship from another reality appeared in this one," Woolsey said, "is there any way we are responsible for this?"

"The chances of having something like this happen is infinitesimally small," Zalenka sat down on the chair facing Woolsey, "that's why the Ancients extract power from so many realities at once, to prevent something like this from happening."

"Did the team change anything in the lab?"

"According to reports, nothing was changed," Zalenka said, "as you American's like say, everything was on its default settings."

"That's not a saying," Woolsey said while Zalenka leaned forward.

"The point is that nothing was changed," Zalenka said, "and even if a ship did pass through the point of extraction, it should not affect them. Energy is extracted from a different subspace layer, so it does not affect ships travelling is hyperspace. At least it should not or else we would be seeing numerous civilizations from other realities trapped in Pegasus."

"What if they don't use hyperspace?" Woolsey said as Zalenka scrunched his face in confusion. "I'll send you a report by Colonel Hawking on the Talon. She explained that the ship that arrived in this reality is using a faster than light drive that warps subspace… I think that was the explanation."

"Please send me the report, Mr. Woolsey," Zalenka said as he got up, "but… it is possible. If… well… I can't make a conclusion until Rodney and I have seen their logs."

"Which is?"

"If their drive warps subspace around the ship?" Zalenka said, "then it could interfere with the extraction process. And if that's true…."

"Notify Dr McKAy," Woolsey said, "and if the data pans out, then we need a way to get them back home."

"of course," Zalenka nodded before he rushed out of Woolsey's office and to Stargate Operations where he then sent a message to the Talon, after which the message would be relayed directly to McKay. In the meantime, Woolsey was rubbing his forehead in frustration.

"Homeworld Command is going to love this," he whispered sarcastically.

TBC.


End file.
